The Taisho's Mate
by KaeterinaRomanov
Summary: Kagome is the daughter of Tony Stark though she doesn't know that. She has people she wants to protect, but first she needs saving herself.
1. The phone call

Kagome glanced nervously around the room as she hid under the table. It was the middle of the night and she prayed anyone that was supposed to check on her was asleep. She had managed to sneak in the piece of paper that her mother had left her. She had no idea who the number was to, all that was said was that if she called that number and gave her name she would get help. Not that her mother would have ever have suspected her to end up in a situation like this. She clutched the office phone tight to her chest and held her breath as the night guard passed by. As soon as he was out of hearing range she looked at the phone she held in her hands. She probably wouldn't have long, she knew that, but she had to try. She had to get out of here, she wasn't crazy!

She pulled out the paper and quickly dialed in the number, "Please, please, please. Whoever you are, please answer." She chanted quietly and she pressed the phone tightly to her ear.

After a few rings a voice finally answered, "Hello, may I ask who this is and how you obtained this number?"

Kagome was confused for a second. The man had a British accent, who would her mom have known that was British?

"Hello?" the man repeated.

"Uh, my name is Kagome T… Higurashi. My mom was Kun-Lun Higurashi she left me this number after she, after she passed. I need help. I'm not sure who you are, but my mom said that you would be able to help me. Please I need your help." Kagome stammered into the phone. She hadn't realized that her voice started raising slightly in her urgency.

"Miss Higurashi, if you will hold please." The man said.

Kagome's eyes went wide, "No, no please. I don't have time. Please what's your name?"

"You may call me Jarvis Miss."

"Jarvis please. I don't know how my mom knows you but you have to help me. They won't let me out." Kagome begged. Her eyes went wide as the light flicked on, she looked up to see her warden staring down at her with cold eyes.

"Higurashi, give me that phone. Now. And get back to your room. How did you even get out?" the tall strict lady marched across the room and snatched the phone out of her hands. Kagome shouted out a No as the lady yelled out "Guards." With a final motion she hit the end button with her thumb. She glared at the nineteen-year-old still sitting huddled under the table, "We will be increasing your security miss Higurashi." The guards showed up in the room, "Take her back to her room and make sure you lock the door."

"Yes ma'am." He said. Him and another guard walked forward and each grabbed one of her arms and marched her away. All the way Kagome yelled at them to let her go. Nobody listened.

Over 5,500 miles away Tony was lounging in the Avenger's common room, Pepper had kicked him out of his lab for the day. Most of the Avengers were also in the room doing various activities. Steve was sitting in a chair by the window sketching something. Natasha and Clint were battling it out with Mario Kart. Bruce was watching the two try and sabotage each other's characters in the game. The only person that wasn't in was Thor and that was because he was at his girlfriend's lab for the next week or so. Tony was still trying to get that Foster lady to join him in the tower, she was a smart one.

Suddenly Jarvis interrupted their nice normal moment, "Sorry for the inconvenience Sir, but somebody from _the_ list has contacted."

Tony's eyes went wide, "Who?" he asked worriedly. There weren't many people on that list. Most would only call in case of emergency.

"Kagome Higurashi, in place of the Kun-Lun Higurashi on the list. She seemed to be in distress." Jarvis explained.

Before Tony could explain a very cold Black Widow voice stopped him, "How do you know Kagome?"

Tony looked over to see Black Widow glaring at him, Hawkeye wasn't much better. He thought their code names because right now they were not in Natasha and Clint mode, they were very much in spy mode. Tony glared back slightly, "How do you know Kagome?"

"I do believe I asked you first Stark." Natasha practically growled.

Tony realized he was in hot water and backed down slightly, "I don't know Kagome, not really. I mean I've never met her. I do know her mom though." He explained, turning a bit red.

He watched Clint's eyes go wide as he caught the subtle hint, "Holy shit is Tony's Gome's dad?" he turned to look at Natasha, "That's not possible, is it? We would have known, wouldn't we?"

"Tony, you have a kid?" Steve asked, not believing it.

"Yes, I do, alright. We were both young, it was a complete mistake. Her mom didn't want me in her life so I stayed away. I give her money every month and she sends me pictures and other little things. Now, how do you know Kagome?" he demanded.

Clint let out a sigh as he realized that Natasha wasn't going to answer, "We met her when she was fifteen. A strange energy started emanating from her shrine and Shield picked up on it. Phil got sent to see what it was, this was two years before the whole Loki thing. Neither Tasha or myself had anything going on so Phil brought us along to keep us out of trouble. She's a good kid. Though I have a feeling you don't exactly know what's been going on with her since she turned fifteen, do you?"

Tony narrowed his eyes. The updates had slowed down the past four years, he had been worried but not too much. "What do you mean?"

Clint shared a look with Natasha, she gave a nod and he looked at Tony, "It turned out that the odd energy was coming from the well that resided on the shrine. We had gotten there just in time to see Kagome climb out of the well. Three seconds before the well had been completely empty. We had forced her to explain. The well had an ancient energy that was awakened by a powerful jewel that she was apparently born with. She explained it as her being the reincarnation of it's previous protector. The well was a connection between now and 500 years in the past. She said she had accidently shattered the jewel and needed to collect them all again. They had scattered all over the country and she wasn't the only one looking for the shards. She had made a group of friends that were helping her collect the shards. She made us realize that what she did in the past would affect the future, and not in the apocalyptic way. If she didn't go back and fight for the shards then her bad guy, Naraku I'm pretty sure his name was, would be able to collect more of the shards and become practically invincible."

When Clint mentioned an enemy what Jarvis had said popped into Tony's head, she seemed to be in distress. "Jarvis what was she in distress about?" Tony asked quickly.

"I do not know Sir, she was asking for help. She did not know who she was calling, but she asked for help."

"Play the recording J." Tony demanded. He knew all of the calls were recorded for security reasons.

"Very well Sir."

They all heard Jarvis answer the call "Hello, may I ask who this is and how you obtained this number?" there was only breathing on the other side so Jarvis repeated, "Hello?"

"Uh, my name is Kagome T… Higurashi. My mom was Kun-Lun Higurashi she left me this number after she, after she passed. I need help. I'm not sure who you are, but my mom said that you would be able to help me. Please I need your help." They listened to her start out only as a barely heard whisper, but her voice started building in volume as she went.

"Miss Higurashi, if you will hold please." Jarvis stated, this was when he would usually contact Tony to see if he wanted to take the call.

Kagome interrupted him though, "No, no please. I don't have time. Please what's your name?" they could all hear the desperation in her voice.

"You may call me Jarvis Miss."

"Jarvis please. I don't know how my mom knows you but you have to help me. They won't let me out." Kagome begged, they heard a door opening in the background.

Suddenly a harsh female voice was heard, "Higurashi, give me that phone. Now. And get back to your room. How did you even get out?"

They heard a brief struggle for control of the phone and Kagome yelling, "No!"

The last thing they heard before the call was ended was the harsh lady yelling out "Guards."

There was absolute silence in the room.

"Jarvis where did that call originate from?" Tony asked coldly.

"The call came from the Tokyo Metropolitan Matsuzawa Hospital **(just a random mental hospital I looked up online)**." Jarvis answered him.

Clint frowned worriedly, "She's in a hospital? That lady seemed pretty strict for a normal hospital."

"It is a mental hospital Mr. Barton." Jarvis told him.

"What the hell is Gome doing in a mental hospital?" Clint yelled out in concern.

"Jarvis hack, now." Tony growled.

"Of course, Sir." There were a few minutes of silence until Jarvis found the information they all wanted. "It appears that three weeks and two days ago she was admitted into the hospital after she was found on her shrine grounds. Her mother and grandfather were found dead on the sight. Kagome was covered in their blood and is assumed to be the cause of their deaths. Her younger brother is still missing. The cops admitted her into the hospital for a mental breakdown as there was extensive damage done to the shrine. They feared that she was a danger to herself and others. Her file says that as of this morning she is currently in solitary for breaking rules."

Natasha suddenly stood up, a cold determined look in her eyes, and started leaving the room. Clint immediately started following her out.

"Clint, Natasha where are you going?" Steve called out after them.

They could practically hear Clint roll his eyes, "What does it look like, we are going to go rescue a friend from captivity. Kagome adored her family, she would never hurt them. Something is going on and whatever it is Kagome doesn't deserve to be where she is."

"Hold up guys, I'm coming too. I'm the one she called to help. I am helping my daughter." Tony said running after them.

Bruce quickly followed, Tony would need support more now than ever. Tony helped him out a lot now it was his turn to return the favor. Steve followed as well, he wasn't going to let his team go without him. Plus, it sounded like a young girl needed their help.


	2. The hospital

The group was led into the mental hospital by a very determined Black Widow. They walked to the reception desk and Clint cleared his throat to get the receptionist's attention. The girl looked up, her smile dying slowly on her face when she saw who got her attention. It wasn't every day that the Avengers showed up in Japan.

Before she could say anything, Natasha spoke up in perfect Japanese, "We would like to see one of your patients." She said briskly.

The girl was flustered a moment before she got down to business, "May I have a name please?"

"Kagome Higurashi." She answered.

The girl nodded and started typing on the computer, "Right let me look that up." She typed for a few moments before she frowned "I'm sorry she's not getting visitors right now. She is part of a police investigation."

Clint pulled out his Shield badge, "We need to see her immediately, it is part of global security." His Japanese was a bit choppy but still pretty good.

The girl seemed conflicted for a moment before she nodded, "Let me page her main doctor." She told them before sending a notice through the pagers.

A few minutes later a tall strict looking lady came through the doors of one of the closed off areas. She approached the group, a slight frown on her face. "Hello my name is Dr. Kimura, I've been told you wished to see one of my patients." She spoke in English to be polite to the Americans standing in the lobby.

Tony, thankful for somebody finally speaking a language he could understand, said quickly, "Yes Kagome Higurashi."

The slight frown she had grew, "She is not being allowed visitors, one of the privileges that she has lost from misbehavior."

Steve looked slightly concerned, "Misbehaviors?"

Dr. Kimura nodded, "Yes she constantly tries to escape. For her constant escape attempts her phone privileges were taken away. She snuck out of her room the other night to make a phone call, which forced me to take away more privileges."

Clint stepped forward again, "As we told the receptionist we are with Shield. She is a person of interest in an open case we have. We need to talk to her."

The lady looked upon the group and gave a sigh, "Is this about the murder of her family?"

"No ma'am something far bigger." Clint lied politely. He didn't really like the lady too much but being polite was probably the best way to get in there and see Kagome. He had started thinking off her as a younger sister over the years. She really was just a nice girl and was always eager to help. She never missed a check in with her Shield meetings, always coming back to update them on what was happening. They had meetings every two months, their next one was only two weeks away. If she hadn't had been able to sneak away and make that phone call she would have been stuck in here for two more weeks before they even noticed that anything was wrong.

Dr. Kimura thought it over slightly, she did not want to get into any legal trouble with an international organization. She gave a small sigh, "Very well, but only two may come back. We don't allow large groups to come back here at a single time."

Natasha stepped forward, "I'm going to see her." her voice stated that there would be no arguments.

Tony nodded along, "Me to."

Natasha glared slightly, "Now is not the time to tell her Stark."

Tony rolled his eyes, "I'm not stupid Romanov. I won't tell her anything other than it was me that she called. I just need to see that she is okay."

Natasha gave him a look as she determined if he was telling the truth or not, "Fine, but do anything stupid and you will regret it."

Dr. Kimura nodded, "Very well you two follow me." She turned to look at the rest of the group, "The rest of you can go into the waiting room and make yourself comfortable if you wish."

Clint gave a thoughtful look, "Actually we have somewhere to go and check out." Everyone looked at him confused "Hey Nat, when you are done come meet up with us at the Shrine."

Natasha nodded understanding what Clint wanted to do. He wanted to check out Kagome's home and see if he could figure out what happened. "See you there." She acknowledged.

The group split then. Natasha and Tony followed the doctor though the locked doors while Clint and the rest headed to Sunset shrine to start investigating.

As Dr. Kimura led the two through the halls she stared talking, "There are some things you need to know before you are allowed to see her." When she saw she had the attention of the two she continued "Her mental state is very fragile so be cautious with what you say to her. She is also very depressed right now and we don't wish to cause an episode. As she is the lead suspect in her mother's and grandfather's murder she is considered a dangerous patient. We have to keep a close eye on her in case she is a danger to herself or the other patients."

"Herself?" Tony asked in concern. He was finally going to get to meet his daughter, he really didn't want to have to worry about her harming herself.

"So far, she has not given any indications that she will be a danger to herself, but due to her condition we don't want to take any chances. Plus, most of her injuries are still healing and we don't want any of her breakdowns to involve making her injuries worsen." They stopped in front of one of the doors with a window "Now, she tends to go on about imaginary dangers and demons. Please do not play into her fantasies we are trying to break her out of that line of thinking."

"Two questions." Tony said quickly "What do you mean her condition? And what injuries does she have?" He was really tempted to look inside the room, which he was assuming was his daughter's. However, he wanted to know as much as he could first, he would be the first to admit that he wasn't to most tactful and he didn't want to hurt Kagome unintentionally.

Dr. Kimura nodded, "Yes most people don't know, I'm pretty sure she had been keeping it a secret before she got admitted here. Miss Higurashi is almost four months pregnant. She won't give any other information about it; the father is unknown. The only thing she is absolutely resolute about is that she plans to have the child."

Tony's eyes widened in disbelief, not only was he going to be meeting his daughter for the first time. Now he was also going to be a grandfather. It was a slight shock to become both a father and grandfather all at once. Natasha was also surprised. She wasn't sure who the father would be, obviously somebody from the past. There was nobody in this time that she had any feelings for, plus it wasn't like she spent enough time in the present to form a relationship with anybody. She had moved on past Inuyasha though, thinking of him more as a brother than anything. Kagome would usually pull Natasha to the side after the meetings for some girl talk. Ms. Higurashi would always insist that whoever came to check up on them would stay for dinner. Kagome had admitted that it was nice to talk to somebody who wasn't directly involved in the situation. Natasha herself had actually started enjoying the small girl talks, it wasn't like she was around any girls that she could open herself up to. The closest person would have been Maria, but they were really only just becoming friends. It was like helping out the younger sister she never had. The only other males that she traveled with and/or regularly met up with in the past that she knew of were Miroku, Koga, and Sesshomaru. She knew it wouldn't be Miroku as Kagome went on for quite a while about how Miroku and Sango totally had a thing that neither of them wanted to commit to. She was pretty sure that it wouldn't have been Koga; while Koga completely had a huge crush on Kagome, Kagome herself was more tolerant of Koga's advances than anything. She didn't think it would be Sesshomaru either. Kagome had always talked about how he was practically an alive ice sculpture. He didn't show much, if any emotion other than anger or annoyance at those around him. He had even tried to kill Kagome the first time they had met and Natasha would bet anything that wasn't the only time he had tried to kill her. Natasha was eager to talk to her privately to find out who the father is. She would keep it between them, just like everything else they talked about. Kagome really was a person who just pulled you towards her, she was hard to not like.

"What about her injuries?" Natasha asked.

"She had some injuries from when we found her at her home, which the police think was inflicted upon her by her family in self-defense against her. She has a broken arm which is healing nicely, though her cast will need to stay on for another three weeks as least. She also had multiple lacerations across her body, a few of them needed stitches. When she has some of her episodes she reacts so violently that she will rip her stitches, so they are taking some time to heal. The only other major injury is her sprained ankle. She hasn't spent enough time staying off her leg to let it heal fully." She explained.

Finally, Tony gathered enough courage to look into the window. While he knew what she looked like since he had gotten pictures of her almost monthly for the past nineteen years, though the last four years the updates had slowed down considerably, he had never seen her in person. There was a real difference between pictures and real life. Though now he knew the update slowdown was because she hadn't been around enough in this time. He looked into the window to see Kagome sitting on the bed. She had one leg propped up and was hugging it slightly. She was simply staring at the wall, her chocolate brown eyes scarily blank. He hated seeing that look in her eyes and he desperately wanted to get her out of here. She suddenly looked up as if she knew he was looking at her, the blank look in her eyes turned to confusion at seeing him. She obviously didn't know who he was and was confused as to why he was looking into her window. As she moved to look at him, something caught his eye. On each side of her face a small strip of hair that was a different color from her natural raven black. The left side of her face was framed by a strip of slivery white while the right side of her face was framed by a fiery red-orange. That was new, she didn't have those in the last picture he had gotten of her. What caught his attention the most was that the color went all the way to her roots. She had been in here for almost a month, her hair should have grown out a bit by now bringing her natural black hair back. He very highly doubted that the hospital let her continue dying her hair, they didn't even allow her phone access. Which honestly was a crime in itself.

Dr. Kimura interrupted his thoughts, "Well let's get this going. Remember to not upset her please. She has been calm all day for the most part so far." She told them as she swiped her access card to unlock the door.

Natasha pushed past the two of them and opened the door. Kagome's eyes went wide and tears started filling her eyes as she saw the Black Widow enter her room.

"Tasha?" Kagome whispered softly in hope and disbelief.


	3. Freedom

"Tasha?" Kagome whispered softly. She couldn't believe that she was here. How did she even know she was here? She looked past Natasha to see the man that had been looking in her window and Dr. Kimura. She ignored them and turned her attention back on Natasha, without her meaning to her eyes started welling up with tears. She shot up off of her bed and launched herself at one of the people she viewed as a pseudo older sister. Even though she knew that Natasha wasn't the biggest on touching, but she needed to know that she was really there. Standing in front of her. She hugged Natasha as hard as she could and let out a sigh of relief as she felt Tasha's own arms wrap around her.

"Oh, Kagome I'm so sorry." Natasha whispered into her ear.

Kagome stifled a sob into Natasha's shoulder, "Get me out of here, please. I'm not crazy and I didn't kill Mama. I'm not crazy, right?" Kagome said hysterically. Kagome hated how she had absolutely no control over her emotions anymore. When she wasn't around other people her mind seemed to shut down entirely. When she was around people her mind just constantly screamed threats! She got defensive and her mind kept flashing back to Naraku's attacks three weeks ago. She had no idea where he had gone off to, or why he had left her alive instead of just killing her and taking her part of the jewel. With how much her mind has been playing with her she had begun to question her own sanity. Especially with how much everyone around here was telling her that everything she was thinking was wrong.

Natasha pushed her back and looked her straight in the eyes, "No Mladshaya sestra you are not crazy."

Kagome have a sigh of relief before Natasha let her go back into the hug. Kagome knew she was being overly touch-feely but she craved the physical reassurance. "Thank you, thank you." Kagome whispered into her shoulder and then refused to let go. She couldn't, not yet.

Dr. Kimura gave an irritated sigh, "Ma'am I told you. Please do not play into her fantasies."

Natasha gave a determined grunt and turned to look at the doctor. Kagome didn't let go, simply shuffled around with Natasha. Natasha started a very convincing lie, "As we said when we got here, Kagome is a prime witness in a global security issue. There is a crime syndicate that has spread globally. They call themselves the demons. Their people obviously came after Kagome, as she was a witness, and killed her family. Kagome is not crazy; her mind is just traumatized from the death of her family which is why it made it hard for her to think straight." Dr. Kimura stood there with her jaw slack slightly, Tony simply had an eyebrow raised finding the story amusing. "Now as she is a prime witness, and one we wish to keep alive, you are going to transfer her over to us. We will be taking her back to our base to keep her safe, both physically and mentally."

Dr. Kimura's eyes narrowed, "Now just wait one moment. You two obviously know each other. I have absolutely no proof that what you've said is the truth. For all I know you could have been the one she snuck a call out to last night and now you are just here to break her out. As I have said before she is the prime suspect in the murder of her family, there was no indication that anyone other than her and her family was there that night. You are not going to simply take her out of this hospital."

Natasha narrowed her eyes at the doctor. She knew the lady was simply doing her job, but her doing her job interfered with her trying to help Kagome. "All I have to do is make one phone call and she will be released to us within the next half hour."

"Well than make your call Ma'am for without me getting the go ahead by my boss I will not simply be giving one of my patients away to a government agency." Dr. Kimura said briskly.

Natasha looked down into Kagome's big brown doe eyes. Eyes that had started off bright and innocent were now scared and haunted. Something big had obviously happened and Natasha knew it was important to find out as soon as possible. She pulled Kagome away from her once again, she felt bad at the small mewl of disagreement that came from Kagome. "Don't worry Mladshaya sestra I will be right back. I need to step outside and call Fury. He'll be able to get you out of here. Then you'll be able to come back with me and you can explain what happened. We will make things better Gome I promise." When she saw that Kagome still didn't want to let her go, she was probably scared that she would simply disappear, she told her "See that guy over there?" she asked gesturing to Tony, Kagome nodded. "His name is Tony. He has some things he wants to talk to you about. How about you talk to him while I go call Fury. We will have you out of here within thirty minutes."

Kagome hesitated for a bit before nodding. She made her way back over to her bed and sat down on the edge of it, making sure that her back was to the wall and they wouldn't be able to get around behind her. She was tired of sneak attacks and preferred to keep everyone in view in front of her. She let out a small sigh of relief when she got off of her leg, she kept forgetting that her leg wasn't healed yet. Usually she could speed heal her injuries, but since she was stuck in this place that actively monitored her, practically hourly, she had to actively keep her Ki from not healing her wounds. Plus, her precious baby inside her seemed to set her Ki off balance at times and she didn't always have the best control over it all the time. Not since she found out she was pregnant, which had totally not been planned but she was beyond happy that it had happened. All she wanted was to get back to the baby's father, though she didn't think that was going to be possible anymore. Naraku had completely destroyed the well when he had come through. He had made sure there had been nowhere for her to run back to. Also, about ninety percent of her Ki was keeping up a barrier around the Shikon jewel that was currently hanging around her neck. It wasn't a lot of it, only about a third of the entire jewel. Naraku had the rest of it. But she was keeping it hidden visibly from the staff here so they didn't take it away from her and become corrupted. She was also keeping it hidden sensually so that demons that were around wouldn't sense the jewel and come storming the hospital.

She looked at the man, Tony, that was standing next to the single chair in her room. He looked over to Dr. Kimura before speaking, "Is it possible that I could speak to her privately? You can wait right outside the door, even watch through the window. I just need a semblance of privacy here." Both Kagome and Tony caught the glare Natasha threw him. Tony rolled his eyes, "I already told you Romanov, not that. I know that now is not the right time. Probably not even in the near future is that conversation a good idea. I just want to talk about the call, but I don't need my private business spread all over the place by nosy hospital workers."

Natasha nodded with a smirk, gave Kagome a comforting smile, then walked down the hall to make her call to Fury. Dr. Kimura was glaring slightly at Tony's last comment before agreeing to stay in the hall. She left with a warning that she would be watching and if he did anything suspicious she would call security. With a quiet click Tony and Kagome were left alone in the room.

"Who are you?" Kagome asked quietly, Natasha obviously knew him so maybe he was part of Shield?

"You really don't know who I am kid?" Tony asked as he sat down, making himself as comfortable in the chair as he could. It really wasn't the most comfortable chair to begin with though. Kagome shook her head indicating that she had no idea who he was. "Well, that really is a change from the everyday occurrence. My name is Tony Stark otherwise known as Iron Man."

Kagome's eyes widened in realization, no this man was not part of Shield. At least not directly involved with it. She may not recognize him by face but she had heard of him. She had heard of Stark Industries; her dad had worked in the offices of the Japan branch before he had died. Natasha also had talked about the extremely annoying Tony Stark who thought he knew everything. She had described him as cocky and childish, but underneath everything had a good heart. She had also heard about Iron Man being a part of the Avengers from her brother. She had been in the feudal era when the attack had gone down, but her brother had told her all about it when she had gotten back. During that meeting with Shield she had found out that both Natasha and Clint had become part of the team, and that Phil had died. She had been really sad to hear that, she had honestly really liked Phil. She had known him for two years and had looked forward to the meetings to talk with him. Natasha had taken over as her Shield liaison after that, though Clint was with her almost every time. But even with all that, she was pretty sure she had never really seen a picture of the man. Or even if she did it hadn't connected in her mind that the man was so important.

Kagome gave a small shrug, "I haven't really been around technology all that much the past few years and even before that I wasn't really all that into it. I have heard of you though. Tasha said your team helped save Clint from the bad guy. Thanks for that, he tends to get into trouble about as much as I do." Kagome gave a small grin as she looked at the ground, "Tasha refused to leave the two of us alone saying we would probably accidently cause global destruction."

Tony snorted in amusement, "No need to really thank me kid. I honestly didn't do all that much in the involvement of freeing Clint from Loki. All I did was stop the helicarrier from crashing into the ocean."

"That seems pretty important to me." Kagome said sincerely. People tended to underestimate how important the little things they did were. Never the less Kagome moved on, "You said you wanted to talk to me about something Sir?" she asked quietly but politely. She didn't talk loudly lately, he throat tended to hurt. She had been having night terrors every single night since the night Naraku attacked. She would wake up screaming until her throat physically hurt.

Tony flinched slightly, "Ah, don't call me Sir. It makes me feel old, just call me Tony alright?" when Kagome nodded her continued "I did want to talk to you about something. You know that phone call you made last night? Do you know who you meant to call?"

Kagome looked at him with wide eyes, her phone call? Was that how Natasha knew to come here? She really shouldn't have even checked up on her shrine for another two weeks, she hadn't even thought of that before now. How did Tasha know that she was here? Did her phone call actually save her? She had thought the entire thing ultimately pointless. All she had gotten was a trading of names before the phone was taken from her. She hadn't found out why Mama had left her the number, and she hadn't been able to tell the other person where she was and why she needed help. Kagome finally shook her head at him, "No. Mama had left it in her will, that if anything happened to her and I need help for anything I should call that number. It took me a week to find a good time frame to sneak out of my room and make the call. Why, do you know this Jarvis person?" she asked curiously.

Tony scratched his arm nervously, he really had to be careful on how he explained this to her. He didn't want her to know that he was her father, not yet at least. Maybe not ever even. Quite honestly, he wasn't father material, never had and probably never would be. But right now, for sure he couldn't let her know, her mind was not stable enough. He didn't want her to break down when she found out that the man she thought was her dad hadn't actually been. To be 100 percent honest he was just content to sit on the sidelines and help from afar. He would be happier with him being able to silently help her out and to be around her than for her to hate him and push him away. He hadn't fully realized that he had wanted to before, but now that he had met her in person he really wanted to find out more about her. He really wanted to learn about her, and possibly even become friends. He knew he would not be a good active dad, but he could be a decent one that helped behind the scenes. So, for once in his life Tony Stark actually had to filter the words that came out of his mouth.

"Actually, it was me that you were calling." He told her, it was a decent place to start at least.

"But the man on the phone said his name was Jarvis." Kagome said, confusion in her tone.

"Yeah Jarvis answered, he answers practically all of my phone calls. Jarvis may have answered, but the phone number was mine. Understand?" he asked.

Kagome nodded slowly, "So Jarvis is like your receptionist?"

"Ah kinda, but not entirely. Jarvis isn't technically human."

Kagome bristled, not human? Did… did he have a demon assistant? "What do you mean?" she asked carefully. She didn't sense any Youkai coming off of him that would indicate prolonged exposure to a demon, but that didn't mean anything. She knew demons that were able to mask their Youkai before.

Tony didn't seem to notice Kagome's sudden wariness, "Jarvis is an AI." He explained casually.

Kagome's mind immediately relaxed, not a demon, but… "What is an AI?" she asked.

Tony looked at her in shock, how did she not know what an AI was? "AI stands for artificial intelligence." He explained.

Kagome looked at him blankly, was that supposed to mean something? She really didn't know much about technology other than how to surf the web and work her smart phone, not that she had much time to do either the past four years. Even before her first tumble down the well she hadn't been into technology, at all. Sure, she watched TV and did some stuff online, but that had been about it. She was a shrine girl. Most of her time was spent helping her gramps clean up the Shrine and going around to other Shrines to run errands for him. She preferred to read and spend time with her friends that to mess about with computers. "Uh…" she said smartly.

Tony realized that she still didn't understand what he meant and his eyes went wide, just how tech illiterate was she? He decided to dumb it down for her to the level he does for Steve at times. "An AI is pretty much a person in a computer. His name stands for Just Another Very Intelligent System. He's a bunch of complicated code that I've created to make him seem like a person. In the end however he's basically an extremely complicated computer program. Does that make sense?"

Kagome thought over what he said, "Yeah that makes sense now. So, he's like your computer butler. Right?"

Tony winced internally, "He's a lot more than that, but if that helps you wrap your mind around the concept of him. Sure."

Kagome nodded, then frowned slightly. "Okay then. If Jarvis was just answering for you… then how did my mom know Tony Stark?" she looked at him in confusion.

Tony simply looked at her for a moment, how exactly could he explain this that would make sense without giving anything away? "Uh Kun-Loon was a really good friend from college. I came to the University of Tokyo for a year when I was in college and I met you mom there. She was a really nice lady and we got along rather well. She didn't seem to mind that I was an American or that I was the kid of a rich man. She was one of the few friends I had at the time that just treated me like Tony, not the son of Howard Stark. So, when the time came for me to leave I gave her my number to keep in touch and told her if she ever needed help with anything she could call me and I would do my damnedest to help her out. Your mom was a great lady who didn't take people for face value, I really didn't have many people like that in my life at the time." He really still didn't, though he did have a lot more now than he did back then. That story was close enough to the truth that he hoped she would roll with it.

Tony honestly hadn't been in love with Kun-Loon when he slept with her. They had become really good friends however. What he had said was true, Kun-Loon honestly hadn't given one shit about who he was. In fact, the first time he had flirted with her she had laughed in his face and told him she wasn't interested. She then went on to say how he looked lonely and while she had no intentions of sleeping with him if he wanted to become friends she was up for that. Tony had brushed it off at the time and had simply moved onto the next pretty girl. When he saw he again after a few weeks studying in the library he had felt compelled to sit and study with her. That had begun an almost year long friendship between the two of them. Then when Tony had decided to leave for a different college she had decided to throw a goodbye party for him. They had both gotten completely trashed that night and one thing led to another and they had ended up sleeping together. They had both agreed that it had been a mistake and said they'd keep being friends. After that Tony had gone home and threw himself into a whole different college. About a month later he had gotten the call from Kun-Loon saying that she was pregnant. She had told him that she was going to keep the baby, but that she had started dating someone who she truly cared about. The man knew that she was pregnant and that it wasn't his but had said he would care for the baby as if it was. She explained that while she thought of him as a good friend, she did not want her baby exposed to the type of life that he lead. Tony had almost immediately agreed with her, but he told her that he would not completely abandon her. This was partly his fault and he wasn't one to ignore his problems, he wasn't his dad. It was then that they had come up with the agreement that Tony would pay child support every month if he could get pictures and some stories about the child. They both ended up doing more than the other thought they would. Tony sent about five times the amount of the child support he was due, Kun-Loon kept the normal amount but put the extra into a bank account for Kagome when she was older. Kun-Loon also knew that Tony would want to know as much as possible to she sent him lots of pictures, stories, cards, videos, and small drawings and crafts done by Kagome every month. It really had been a good system, Tony had secretly pulled some strings to get Kagome's father figure a job at the Stark branch in Japan. The man had been going to college for business and he had been an extremely good worker. Because of course Tony would keep an eye on the people in Kagome's life. He had been in line for a promotion when he had gotten into the fatal car crash. Tony had drunk himself silly when he learned that his daughter had lost her father the same way he himself had lost his parents. When he had heard about the death he had started sending a bit extra every month to help them along. He knew their situation wasn't going to be good right off the bat. They had been living with the man's father at the shrine. Kun-Loon herself had to quit her job almost a year prior to look after the six-year-old Kagome and their one-year old son Sota. So, they had lost the only income for the family besides the shrine. The grandfather was too old to look after two tiny children and keep up with the shrine. So, Tony had decided to send them as much as they needed to keep living comfortably day by day. Kun-Loon had responded by sending even more memorabilia about his daughter.

Kagome looked at him, she could tell it wasn't the entire story. She didn't know what he was leaving out but what she did know was that what he had told her wasn't a lie so she let it go for now. "Sounds like you and mama were good friends then, why didn't you keep in contact? She never spoke about you."

"Ah we did send each other emails from time to time. I just never seemed to have an opportunity to come back to Japan for a simply friendly visit. Usually when I came over it was for business and it kept me busy the entire time. You mom was truly a good person Kagome." Tony told her in complete honesty.

Kagome smiled sadly at him, "Thanks, I do know. Mama was person who did not judge at appearances; she had an open heart, and a kind soul. I miss her so much." She said as a tear fell down her cheek, though she was quick to wipe it away.

Tony was about to say something else when the door opened. Dr. Kimura had a slightly sour look on her face. Natasha had a look of victory, "Alright Gome, let's get you out of here. Everything is in order."

Kagome looked at her with wide, hopeful eyes, "Really?"

Natasha nodded, "Truly. Come on Gome let's get you out of this place."

Tony grinned, "Look at that kid, Romanov did make a quick job of that promise. That was only twenty minutes. Let's go, I've never liked hospitals."

Natasha walked over and helped Kagome up and helped her walk out of the room and down the hall. Kagome could walk by herself but if felt nice to lean on somebody with her twisted ankle. It wasn't like she had to collect anything, she didn't have anything of her own here besides the hidden Shikon necklace. She had been brought straight here from the police station when her mental state was deemed unstable. It wasn't like they were going to let her keep her ripped and bloody clothes she had gone there with. They had been taken as evidence. No, she was free to simply leave. A smile took over her face, she was getting to leave!

"Where are we going Tasha?" she asked once they got into the car that was waiting for them outside. Most likely sent there by Tony.

Natasha sent her a look, "That is up to you Gome. Clint and the rest of the team that came with us are currently at your shrine. They went there to look for answers. We can either go there and meet up with them, or we can go straight to the airport and wait there for them to get done with what they need to do there. It's entirely up to you, do you think you can handle going home?"

Kagome thought long and hard, it wasn't a light question. Normally she was a strong girl, could roll with the punches and just keep going. But a lot had happened the night Naraku attacked, and her increased hormones from being pregnant did not make that any easier to take. She hated to admit it but she did have to, her mind was not stable at the moment. Her nightly terrors and daytime episodes were proof of that. The question she had to ask herself was, was she strong enough to go back to the place where her mom and grandpa had been murdered right in front of her and her little brother had been kidnapped? The answer, "Take my home Tasha." It was a barely heard whisper but Natasha told the driver where to go. She had to be strong enough, for her brother. She needed to see the extent of the damage Naraku had inflicted up on her shrine. Plus, this would give her a chance to take anything and everything she could with her when she left to where ever Natasha was taking her as their end goal. She might not be strong enough, but she was a fighter. And there was no chance in hell that she was letting Naraku beat her. She had her own revenge to take upon him.

A tiny smile appeared though her dark thoughts, at least she would be able to see Clint when she got there. That was one small ray of light in her stormy world. She had missed her older brother figure.

 **Mladshaya sestra = Little sister**


	4. Storytime

They pulled to a stop in front of the shrine, the car was really quiet. Not much had been said since they left the hospital. Kagome hadn't felt like speaking and she was glad that the other two had respected her silent wishes. She had a feeling that she would be doing a lot of explaining coming soon so the quiet and peaceful ride back to her home was much appreciated. As the car stopped Natasha opened the door and got out, she held out her hand to help Kagome out. Kagome gave her a tight smile and took hold of her hand. As she got out she looked up the stairs without saying a word, she took a deep calming breath. This was the part that she needed to be brave. She could do this. She could walk up those stairs and face her home, where her family had been killed. First step of course was actually walking up all those steps with her hurt ankle. She thanked the lord she had already had her morning sickness otherwise she would have been screwed if it happened going up these stairs.

Natasha must have noticed her trepidation as she smirked at her as she pulled out her cellphone. She held up her finger telling her to wait as she speed-dialed somebody, "Hey Clint. Yeah, we got her, hardly even a problem. Look can you send Steve down, we need a bit of help. Yeah thanks see you in a bit."

Kagome looked at Natasha questioningly but her unasked question was answered almost immediately as a tall blonde man started to practically run down the stairs. Kagome whipped her head towards Natasha, "Tasha!" she growled at her.

Natasha smirked at her, "What? It's not like you'll be able to walk up all of those steps."

Kagome was still glaring at Nat when Steve made it to the bottom, "Clint said you guys needed help?" He wasn't even slightly out of breath.

"Yeah Kagome here has a sprained ankle and can't walk up the steps herself. Think you can give her a lift up?" Natasha said with a smirk.

Steve looked at the girl that was standing next to Natasha, she seemed to be favoring one leg over the other. She was pretty short, only measuring up to 5'2'' maybe a bit more. She had long black hair that fell to her hips, though each side of her face was framed by either orange or a silvery-white. Her deep chocolate eyes also seemed to be glaring at Natasha which confused Steve a bit.

"Oh, um… sure. Where's Tony?" he asked noticing the absence of Kagome's supposed father.

"He's still in the car. He needed to video chat Pepper quickly as he left without saying anything." Natasha said before starting up the stairs. "He'll meet us up there don't worry." She called behind her, not stopping her accent up the shrine steps.

Steve turned to Kagome who was giving an awful big blush, "It's fine you don't have to carry me. I can make it up myself, honestly. It'll just take me longer than I'm used to." She really didn't want to be carried. There weren't many people she felt comfortable carrying her.

Steve shook his head, "No Miss I can carry you. You are hurt and it's best to rest your ankle." Steve said before picking her up bridal style. He didn't even really give her a chance to prepare herself.

Kagome complete froze up as he picked her up. She was doing her best not to lash out and start attacking the man holding her. That really wouldn't be the best first impression on Natasha's friend and teammate. But her defenses were screaming at her to make the man stop carrying her. Her personal space was being intruded upon and she was starting to panic. Before she knew it though they were at the top and he was setting her down.

She let out a breath that she didn't realize she had been holding and quickly took a few steps away from him. It really wasn't anything personal, letting people close made her mind go into overdrive. Which was really annoying because prior to three weeks ago she was a big people person. Inuyasha always complained about how she made friends where ever she went.

"Sorry did I overstep?" Steve asked worriedly. He had noticed on the way up that she had been extremely stiff. Halfway up she started holding breath. Once she had done that he had sped up his trek up the stairs so he could put her down.

"No, no it's fine. I'm just jumpy is all. It's not you." Kagome babbled quietly.

She looked to the side to avoid looking at him and her eyes caught sight of the wellhouse. Kagome started looking distraught, it was completely destroyed. She walked slowly over to it. She knew it had gotten wrecked when Naraku and his crew had come though, but she hadn't realized the damage had been quite that bad. She walked to the edge of where the well used to be. To her astonishment there was no hole anymore, it was like the well had never been there in the first place. The only thing indicating a well used to reside there was the chunks of destroyed well house and a burnt spot on the ground.

"It's gone…" Kagome said, tears filling her eyes.

"Gome." Clint called out.

Kagome turned to Clint, tears streaming down her face, "It's gone." She repeated, letting out a sob.

Clint rushed forward and pulled her into a hug. The hug didn't bother her nearly as much as Steve carrying her. Most likely because her feet were still firmly on the ground. Kagome clung to the back of Clint's shirt as she sobbed into his chest. Clint kept his arms wrapped around the girl who had lost so much, every so often he would pet her hair to try and calm her down. He himself had been extremely surprised when he got here to see the well had vanished. If he hadn't known about a well there before he would never have believed there had been one in the first place. If it had been a shock for him, he was sure it was a major hit to Kagome. Not only did she lose her family here, she also lost access to her family in the feudal era.

That was the scene that Tony walked up on. His daughter clinging desperately to Legolas sobbing her heart out. He tore his eyes away from his despondent daughter to his surroundings. The place where they were standing was surrounded with chunks and splinters of wood. There was a large tree that had a few slash marks on it, though not enough to kill it he thought absently. All over the shrine's ground there were gashes in the ground, what caused them he had absolutely no idea. There were also burn marks and craters littering the area. The house itself wasn't in the best state either. The roof was collapsed in one area which would make maneuvering through the top floor of the house dangerous. There were some holes in the walls and practically all of the windows were broken. Parts of the house looked slightly scorched as well. How in the world did the police think that Kagome was the cause of this?

Kagome's voice brought him out of his stupor, "Thanks Clint."

Clint let out a friendly chuckle, "What good would I be if I didn't let my little sister cry on me."

Kagome let out a small shaky laugh before stepping back from him, her gaze went back to the origin of the wood explosion, "How did it just disappear?" she asked quietly.

"I don't know Gome, I was just as surprised when I got here. Let's go inside the house so you can sit down. The living room is still in pretty good shape, and so is the kitchen. We've been making you something so you can eat something before you tell us what happened if you're feeling up to it."

Kagome gave a nod, "I'd have to tell you eventually so I might as well tell you right away. You know just to get it over with. If I put it off I probably wouldn't even want to go into it."

Clint wrapped his arm around Kagome to help her take some weight off her leg, Natasha had filled him in quickly before Steve got Kagome to the top. He couldn't believe that little Kagome was pregnant. He was very interested to find out who Kagome had done it with, last he knew she hadn't been interested in everybody. Unless she became that good of an actress and liar that she withheld the truth and they believed her. They could usually tell when Kagome was lying, she was pretty much an open book. Or at least she used to be. After she reported that her friend Sango was teaching her demon slayer arts she had started becoming more closed off. Definitely still Kagome, but not quite as open with her emotions. She closed herself off a bit gaining control of her emotions. Had she gained so much control that she had been able to successful pull the wool over two trained spies eyes?

He sat Kagome down on the couch and sat right next to her. Bruce had been starting to cook something for her the moment they were told that she was coming. Out of all of them he could probably cook the best, from all of his time in third world countries. He gave her the light stew he was able to cook up and she gave him a grateful smile. The food hadn't been the best at the hospital.

She ate the bowl slowly, enjoying the taste. All too soon she was done and she knew that it was time to tell them what happened, "So, where should I start?" she asked looking at Natasha before turning her eyes to the others sitting around who didn't know about her past.

"Just pretend that this is our next briefing. Clint and myself will fill them in about the rest later." Natasha told her, then gave her a strict look, "But this time don't leave anything out, like you obviously have been."

Kagome blushed and leaned into Clint slightly for comfort, who then blurted out "Why don't you start by telling us who you are having that baby with." He said looking at Kagome's tiny baby bump. Kagome's blush deepened, as she put her hand on her stomach a smile on her face. Before she could say anything, he asked, "It wasn't that immature ass hat Inuyasha was it?"

Kagome laughed, "No it wasn't Inuyasha and before you ask it wasn't Koga or Miroku either." She let out a sigh and started playing with the stripe of slivery-white hair. "It was Sesshomaru."

"Wait, what!" Clint yelled out surprised.

Natasha raised an eyebrow, "Isn't he the one that tried to kill you the first time you met? Plus, other times after that?"

Kagome nodded, "Yeah but he settled down quite a bit after Rin started following him around. About half a year ago we decided it would be best if our two groups started traveling together. Rin was getting older and Sesshomaru wasn't used to human children and their needs. He wanted my help as I was one of the only ones he trusted and Rin liked me. I was starting to need help with Shippo as well. While I was used to most demon traits and traditions I wasn't the right person to teach Shippo. I am only human. Inuyasha was always so brash and ready to throw himself into battle at any moment. While I loved Yasha I didn't want Shippo to grow up like that. So Sesshomaru agreed to help Shippo learn how to hunt and other things that Shippo's dad never got the change to teach him. I guess we just ended up spending so much time together that we fell in love. Neither of us suspected it, not in the least. Yasha was pissed off for the longest time which made traveling together a bit tense."

"Didn't Sesshomaru hate humans though?" Clint asked suddenly.

Kagome looked up at him and shook her head, "No he didn't hate humans. He does think as most of them beneath him, but he doesn't hate them. I used to think that as well. I asked him the same thing when he started courting me. He explained to me about dog demon traditions. Dog demons mate for life, if you go against your mate it is an actual crime. InuTaisho was mated to Sesshomaru's mom when he slept with Inuyasha's mom. So basically, InuTaisho cheated on his mate, which goes against dog demon pack mentality. Sesshomaru didn't like Inuyasha because he was a constant reminder of his father's infidelity. A blemish on the pure Taisho name, he told me."

"So, what happened after that?" Natasha asked when Kagome fell quiet.

"I knew I was pregnant for a couple meetings with you, I just didn't tell you. When we found out Sesshomaru was slightly panicked. It was actually amusing to watch the Icy lord of the west loose his cool. Our two packs didn't sleep at the same camp, we were close to each other in case anything happened though. The night that my scent changed I was sleeping with my original group. I flip flopped between the two and Shippo went were I went, we did share a sleeping bag. When Shippo woke up he told me that I smelled weird, different from my usual scent. That must have woken Inuyasha because he took one whiff of me and his face turned dark before just taking off to who knows where. I was pretty worried, because Shippo told me he didn't know why I smelt different. He told me it wasn't an ill scent and that was the only thing that reassured me. He wouldn't have known what it was as we were never around pregnant people; his own mother had died when he was just a baby so it wasn't like he could get the experience from having a younger sibling.

"We woke up Sango and Miroku and told them we were heading over to Sesshomaru's camp and for them to wait there for Inuyasha to come back from wherever he ran off to. When we made it to Sessh's camp everyone was already awake. I remember Rin ran and greeted Shippo and me before dragging Shippo off to help her with Ah-Un. Sesshomaru took one breath and was instantly in front of me. He took a deep whiff of my scent and bluntly told me that I was pupped. It took me a second to realize what he meant and that is when I started freaking out. We had really not planned on having kids, not yet at least. We wanted to wait until Naraku was dead and no longer a threat. We weren't even sure if we were compatible to have kids with him being a demon and me being a Miko. We thought the energies might clash with each other leaving us unable to have kids. I had brought that up once and he simply told me that he would name Shippo as his heir then as he was my kit whether we were blood or not.

"Sessh didn't want to risk leaving his courting partner pupped and unmated though, so he whisked me away. He told Jaken to go to Sango and the other and explain what was going on and that we would be back by the end of the week. Sesshomaru took me on his cloud while Rin and Shippo followed behind us on Ah-Un. We didn't want to leave the kids behind, Naraku had been becoming more active and we didn't want them out of our sight. We went to Sesshomaru's castle where I got to have the very embarrassing experience of meeting his mother. She had been acting as ruler of the west while Sesshomaru was out wandering with us."

Kagome felt a smile come over her face remembering what had all gone down that week. It had certainly been hectic. Hectic but wonderful. So far telling the story wasn't painful for her at all, though she wasn't to the bad part yet. Right now, it was just telling them her good memories. Though her good memories did have a bit of a sad tint to them now that they were only that memories, she couldn't go back anymore.

Everyone else in the room were having many different thoughts. As soon as she mentioned demons Tony, Steve, and Bruce became worried as Natasha and Clint had failed to warn them about that. The three were doing their best to keep up with Kagome's story, though it was a bit hard without knowing the full backstory. It was like jumping to the last chapter of a book before reading the rest of it first. They hadn't really talked on their way over to Japan, everybody was worried and tense. Now they kinda wished they had asked the two spies for her story. Clint and Natasha were slowly putting the pieces together they hadn't known was missing. What had really caught their attention however was the fact that she had said she had known her a couple briefings about her pregnancy. That would have been about five or six months of her being pregnant depending how far along she was for that first abbreviated briefing. The hospital told them that she was only three months along. Something really wasn't adding up. Natasha looked at Kagome with confused eyes, and Kagome caught the look. Kagome sent her a smile, obviously knowing what she was curious about.

"The night after we got to the West's castle Sesshomaru and I got married. I am now very proudly Kagome Taisho." Kagome explained one part.

"That's why you stuttered on your name during that phone call." Tony mentioned, he had been curious why she would stumble on her own name.

Kagome nodded, "Yeah for the past five months I've gotten used to being called Kagome Taisho. Sesshomaru's mother married us and blessed the wedding so the West would accept me, a human, as Sesshomaru's mate. The next day she pulled me aside and explained some things to me. She told me that when the whole Naraku problem was taken care of she would train me on some things, as I was now a noble. She also explained that as this would be Sesshomaru's first child, the child I was bearing would be born heir to the West." She looked Natasha directly in the eyes, "Heirs are always born full blooded demons."

"What does that change?" Clint asked her. His own wife has gone through being pregnant two times so he was fairly used to what was supposed to go down during a pregnancy. He would definitely be there to help her every step of the way.

"For one I'll be pregnant longer as demons age much slower, even in the womb apparently. A demon pregnancy takes a year, so I'm actually half way done with my pregnancy. Lucky me being stuck with morning sickness for so much longer than I normally would be." She explained as she rubbed her stomach lovingly.

"Alright another thing I need to know before we go to darker explanation. Your hair is different colors, why?" Clint asked her.

Kagome fingered her dual colored bangs, "Oh that's an easy explanation actually. The silvery-white is from Sesshomaru, it's the exactly color of his hair. When we got married there was a blood bond so I could share the life span of my mate. Otherwise my lifespan would be practically be over in a blink of an eye to him. I'm still completely human, my lifespan just got connected to Sesshomaru's. The Orange is from Shippo, it's his hair color. Once I bonded with Sesshomaru I was free to actually adopt Shippo. Shippo and I did an adoption blood bond that made me his mother. I hid the colors when I came home for the briefings, it wasn't something you guys needed to know at the time." A frown appeared on her face. She actually wasn't sure what had happened to Shippo, which was a constant ache to her heart. She was pretty sure that he hadn't been killed during the attack, she was sure she would have felt something with the bond. She was pretty sure he hadn't made it to the village yet during the panicked rush of Naraku's attack.

Clint wrapped an arm around Kagome's shoulder and pulled her closer so she could take any comfort from him that she could, "Do you need to take a break Gome?"

Kagome shook her head, her eyes started filling with tears that she was fighting back, "No, if I don't do it now I'll just chicken out." Kagome cleared her throat and snuggled in next to Clint, she didn't actually look at anyone as she started explaining what happened three weeks ago. "We were on our way back to Kaede's village. There was a festival the village was doing, apparently in honor of us, and they wanted us to attend it. Since we really hadn't been doing much other than damage control from Naraku's attacks we decided to go to it. The only loose pieces left of the jewel was in Koga's leg and Kohaku's neck so it wasn't like we had to search for jewel shards. No, we were mostly just going out and searching for Naraku or Kohaku. We were about two kilometers away when we noticed the smoke. We didn't think much of it as we knew they had planned on having a big bonfire. When we were a kilometer from the village the smell finally hit the noses of the demons. The village was downwind of us so they hadn't noticed it before then."

Kagome hadn't even realized that she had stopped talking until a question knocked her out of her stupor, "The smell of what?" Steve asked, though he had a pretty good idea where the story was leading.

"The smell of blood and burning bodies, it's a smell you really can't forget. Inuyasha took off at full pace to get there quicker. Sango and Miroku hopped on Kirara and Sesshomaru picked me up. Rin, Shippo, and Jaken got on Ah-Un who followed at a slower pace. By the time we got there it was too late. Everyone was dead and most of the village was up in flames. We rushed to Kaede's hut in hopes that she somehow survived. She hadn't, poor Kaede had been decapitated right outside of her hut. She probably hadn't even had the time to defend herself. When we heard some noise we all rushed towards it, hoping for a survivor. It wasn't a survivor it was Kohaku.

"Um, for those who don't know Kohaku was Sango's little brother. He had been on the verge of death when Naraku stuck a shard of the jewel in his neck and took control of his mind. The piece of the jewel was the only thing keeping him alive, but at the same time as long as the jewel was in him Naraku had control over him. We had not run into Kohaku for over a year, we followed every lead we found. Each time we only got there in time to put out fires, bury bodies, and release the spirits of the dead. Sango became more desperate each time we came across a village that Kohaku was sent to destroy. She just wanted to help her brother, we all did. Kohaku was a sweet boy when he wasn't being controlled by Naraku, he didn't deserve what was happening to him. When we saw Kohaku standing in the middle of the village, covered in the blood of the villagers, we had mixed feelings. On one hand we were glad that we had finally caught up with the kid. On the other hand, he had just murdered the entire village we used as a home base. Kaede was like a grandmother to all of us, she treated us all like her grandchildren. Loosing Kaede to something other than old age was a major hit to all of us, even Sesshomaru respected Kaede. Kaede would always be the person we would leave Rin and Shippo with when we got a request that was way too dangerous for the kids to go with us on.

"Kohaku started attacking us and we all got pushed to the defensive. None of us wanted to kill Kohaku, he was only fifteen. He was only eleven when Naraku took control of him, we all wanted to help him. We were all so glad of finally running into Kohaku that we failed to realize that it was a trap and he was just the distraction. Naraku had finally decided to go onto the offensive. One moment we were all trying to corner Kohaku, the next we were surrounded. Kagura, Kanna, and Hakudoshi were all there. They had probably been in one of Hakudoshi's barriers and that is why we didn't notice they were around. We were surrounded by Naraku's incarnations and the fire of the village. All at once we were dodging wind attacks from Kagura. Our own attacks were being fired back at us from Kanna's mirror. Hakudoshi, despite how young he is, is extremely skilled with the sword he wields. Plus, he's riding on his fire horse Entei. So, he had a height advantage. For a few minutes we thought we might actually be getting the upper hand, but then a huge swarm of Saimyosho came out of nowhere so Miroku had to start limiting his use of his wind tunnel.

"Sango was battling with Kohaku. Inuyasha was battling Kagura as she was staying off the ground on her feather. Sesshomaru was taking on Hakudoshi, their sword skills were pretty even. Miroku was trying to take care of the Saimyosho so he could start using his wind tunnel again, Kirara was helping out Miroku. I was facing Kanna. For quite a while I started sensing something off from Kanna, almost like a plea. I had realized what it was after a while, she wanted freedom. She wanted to be able to feel something, anything. Naraku kept her emotions very carefully locked away, probably the same place he kept Kagura's heart. It was all going good until everything went to hell." Kagome said losing the battle with her tears as they started streaming down her face.

"Sa-Sango had been able to actually pin down Kohaku. She couldn't make herself make more of a move upon him though, not that I blame her. None of us would, not even Sesshomaru as Rin had a soft spot for Kohaku. Kohaku being under the control of Naraku did not have the same impulse control. He went for any shot he could get in, which just so happened to be a fatal hit. Sango's scream practically froze the battlefield. Everyone stopped and looked towards the source of the noise and we all saw Sango with Kohaku's weapon imbedded in her chest. Then to our horror Naraku popped into existence behind Kohaku. The ever-present blank look in Kohaku's eyes disappeared as Naraku fully released Kohaku from his control. All at once everything Kohaku had done over the past four years, and his dead sister laying in front of him broke the poor boys mind. The scream that escaped his throat is something I'll never be able to forget. It was the scream of a broken soul. He screamed out for his sister and then seconds later Naraku reached out with a smile splitting his face. He stabbed his hand into the back of Kohaku's neck and ripped out the shard of the jewel. Kohaku fell like a puppet who's strings had been cut.

"Everyone was silent for a brief horrified moment. None of us could process what had just happened. We had been extremely lucky the past four years, none of us had died. We had not lost a single pack member ever. Sure, Yasha came close a few times, but the stubborn dog always pulled through. Now we had lost Sango and Kohaku. Kohaku hadn't been part of our pack, but he was Sango's brother which made him honorary pack. Naraku's incarnations were leery of what was going to happen next. Kohaku had been Naraku's puppet for four years and he had killed him without a second thought, with a smile on his face. The incarnations all knew they were expendable, but just how expendable had just been shown to them. The moment Kohaku's job was done he was exposed of. Miroku was the first one to break out the shock…" Kagome explained as her mind went back to the battle.

" _SANGO!" Miroku had screamed. He had just lost the love of his life, the woman he had planned on marrying and having kids with when they defeated Naraku. He started fighting his way to Naraku with a determined type of insanity._

 _Naraku had simply grinned at him before Miroku fell to his knees screaming in pure agony. He gripped his hand and Kagome had watched in horror seeing air begin to escape the bindings of Miroku's wind tunnel. The wind tunnel was collapsing, and Naraku had been the cause of it. Naraku had been the one to curse his family with the wind tunnel, so it proved right that he could make it collapse at any time he saw fit._

"Within a few painful moments Miroku was consumed by his wind tunnel, leaving a crater in his place. Just the same way his father had gone before him. Sesshomaru had been holding me back from foolishly running to Miroku. I know now that it was stupid and would have only caused my death getting sucked into the wind tunnel as well, but at the time I just wanted desperately to help my friend. I didn't want to lose another pack member in the span of a few minutes.

"It was then that Naraku started laughing. He was laughing like he was having the time of his life. The bastard probably was, his plan was working. He was killing off the people that had been opposing him for the past four years one by one. He then looked straight at me and grinned. He told me _"I learned your secret little Miko."_ I started panicking. I thought he had learned about me being pregnant. I had been able to hide the scent of it with a mix of a slight barrier and some herbs. We did not want Naraku to know that I was pregnant, who knows what he would do with that information. Well, both Sesshomaru and Inuyasha must have thought the same thing because they each went to the extreme. Sesshomaru suddenly appeared in front of me, blocking Naraku's view of me. Inuyasha started charging Naraku himself.

"The idiot completely forgot that there were others around as well. Kagura got in a lucky shot and sliced up Yasha's back. He… he probably could have survived that. But then Naraku impaled him on one of his tentacles. I don't actually remember what all happened immediately after that. I know that I screamed Yasha's name and tried to get to him. He was my best friend, my brother. In my mind I needed to get to him, I couldn't lose anyone else, I just couldn't. Not Inuyasha…"

Kagome trailed off briefly, she wiped angrily at the tears pouring down her face. She just needed a second to compose herself. The room was deathly quiet, everyone captured by her story. Everyone felt immense sorrow for the girl sitting in front of them. After a few quiet moments Kagome took a deep breath and started again.

"Sesshomaru picked me up and started running. At first, I wasn't even sure which direction he was taking me, all I cared at that moment was he was taking me away from my dead pack members. I didn't want to leave them, not with Naraku. I wanted to avenge their deaths, Naraku needed to die. He killed three of my friends, three family members, within the span of three minutes. I was fighting to get out of Sessh's grip, which was probably driving him crazy. I know what was going through his mind. He need to make sure I was safe. I was his mate; not just his mate, his pupped mate. His inner beast was probably screaming at him to keep me safe. When we slowed to a stop I realized what his plan was. We had stopped in front of the well, Sesshomaru wanted to send me back to this time where I would be safe for sure. I-I couldn't just do that though! I couldn't leave my mate behind to face off against Naraku and three of his incarnations. I couldn't let my pack member's killer just get away with it. I wasn't even sure where Shippo, my kit, was. I had hoped that Ah-Un had heard the fighting and kept the kids away. When worse came to worse Jaken would be able to defend the kids. But I couldn't just leave and abandon everyone. I was ready to argue with everything I had with Sesshomaru but then Naraku and his crew caught up to us.

"It was then we realized the 'secret' Naraku had learned was of my time traveling abilities. I still don't know how he learned about it, I mean I didn't really hide it my first year over there, but I don't know what even made him look into it. He said some stuff about the well and being Kikyo's reincarnation and how it all made sense now. Sesshomaru didn't even give me a choice. He simply kissed me before tossing me straight into the well. The last thing I saw of the feudal era was Naraku's furious face before Hakudoshi went straight for Sesshomaru. I fell past the lip of the well and was consumed by the normal comforting blue of the time traveling well. Though it had a slight worried tint to it, which I hadn't noticed at the time. I was too wrapped up in my grief. I landed in the bottom of the well in this time and climbed out. I hadn't realized that I was sobbing loudly until I heard my mom start calling out to me. I was fighting with myself, trying to decide if I should just jump back into the well and help Sesshomaru who was being cornered by the most sadistic evil bastard to live.

"My mom grabbed my shoulder and I almost attacked her, that's how tense I was. She pulled me into a hug and didn't even mention all of the blood that was on me. She had started dragging me towards the house, probably to clean up, when I heard the noise. I turned around in horror just in time to see Naraku burst out of the well house in an explosion. I have absolutely no idea how he got through the well, Inuyasha and I were the only ones who could get through before then. Right behind him was Kagura and Kanna. Hakudoshi wasn't with them so my best guess is Naraku used the distraction of Hakudoshi fighting Sesshomaru to sneak past them and follow me. I was outnumbered, my mind was in anguish over all I had just lost, and I now had to protect my family. It all turned out to be too much for me. I remember pulling my bow up and started shooting at them. It was the real Naraku for once, not one of his puppets, and he didn't have Hakudoshi's barriers to hide behind. If I could get in a lucky shot, I thought, I could protect my family.

"To be fully honesty I don't remember the entire fight. I do know that it lasted a while. I remember Kagura decapitating Gramps. I remember Naraku impaling my mom, with that damned smile on his face. I remember shooting an overcharged arrow towards Naraku only for Kagura to get in the way. She died almost instantly, which I was glad with. Kagura hated Naraku probably just as much as we did as he kept her heart captive so she couldn't be free. What I don't remember is how the fire started, but I do remember having to avoid the sudden fire around me. Then he grabbed Sota. I was too weak and I couldn't stop him…"

" _Kagome!" Sota yelled out in fear._

 _Kagome's eyes went wide in concern, he had her brother. The damned bastard had her brother! "Sota!" she screamed out, "Let him go Naraku." She yelled pulling the bow of her string back. She could make this shot, she could use the ability of arrow fazing to have it go through Sota without hurting him and hit Naraku. She could save her brother! What Naraku said next stopped her dead._

 _Naraku held up the jewel shard he had ripped out of Kohaku with a demented grin on his face, "You know little Miko, I'm in need a new play thing."_

" _NO!" Kagome screamed as Naraku plunged the shard into Sota's chest._

 _Sota immediately stopped struggling and simply stood compliantly. Naraku handed Sota a sharp piece of broken wood and Sota simply held it to his neck, ready to plunge it into himself at Naraku's soonest whim. Naraku laughed at her, "Now let us have some fun before we end this for good. You are destined to lose, now all by yourself. I wish to enjoy myself a bit longer. Goodbye for now Miko, come boy." Naraku started turning away and in a desperate act to possibly save her brother she rushed to attack him. Naraku must have anticipated it however as a tentacle whipped out and sent her tumbling across the shrine._

 _She suddenly lost strength in her entire body and she watched with blurry eyes as Naraku disappeared with her brother and Kanna. With the last of her conscious strength she checked on her baby and nearly cried in relief when she found no damage had been inflicted upon them. The barrier she kept up around her stomach was probably the only thing that kept her baby safe. In the next instant she blacked out._

"When I woke up next I realized I was laying next to my mom's dead body and the police were coming up the shrine steps. Apparently, a visitor tried to come up only to see the carnage, they ran and called the police." Kagome turned to look at Natasha desperately, "You have to help find Sota. Please Tasha, I can't leave him in the hands of Naraku. The only reasons I haven't gone completely insane in worry is knowing Naraku won't kill him. No not yet, the only way Naraku would kill Sota is if he died in front of me. I almost lost it completely in the hospital worrying about Sota, Shippo, and Sesshomaru. I had to physically make myself not think of them. For the first three days I was there I'm pretty sure all I did was bang at my door trying to get out so I could find Sota.

"I don't know why he didn't just kill me and take the other part of the jewel shard from me. My best guess is he want to torture me even more yet and there is still a single shard out there that neither of us possess. Koga had it in the feudal era. If Koga is still alive he will still definitely have it, if he's not alive then I need to find where the shard ended up. Naraku is probably out there looking for it now, that is most likely his next move. Finding the last unclaimed shard." Kagome finished, her eyes starting to glaze over in a panic. Clint started trying to calm her down right away, which did work a bit.

"Why does he have such a grudge against you?" Bruce asked quietly. From what he had learned from the past thirty minutes of explanation was that she was just a random fifteen-year-old who got thrown into the past. Why did this Naraku guy want to torture her so much?

Kagome's mouth twisted into a scowl, "I'm the reincarnation of the dead girl his human heart fell in love with. Kikyo died for good almost a year ago. Since she's not around for him to play with he turned his attention to me since I look almost exactly like her." Kagome spit out.

The Avengers all looked at each other, each had a lot they needed to process. The next few months were going to be busy ones they could tell.


	5. Bokuseno

Tony looked at his sleeping daughter with a worried look on his face. This was a lot to take in. He was prepared to take in his traumatized daughter from the death of her family. What he wasn't mental prepared for was everything else. He had gotten thrown in the deep end before learning how to swim. Not only was his daughter pregnant, but she was pregnant with a demon's child. Kagome had explained that they weren't demons from hell, they were more like demons of the earth. They were demons of animals, plants, and elements. That eased his mind a bit that his daughter wasn't having a hell spawn. She was also married, and he hadn't had a single clue about it. He had never even met the guy so he had no idea whether he was a guy worthy of marrying his daughter! All of that personal business wasn't the worst part though.

No, the worst part was his daughter has been through a war. A war so bad that she had gotten used to the scent of blood, rotting flesh, and burning bodies. That thought made him so pissed off that it made him want to punch something. She wasn't even part of the civilian part of the war. Her group was one of the main two sides of the war so she was in the middle of it the entire time. Kagome has been going through war for the past four years and he had no idea about it. When the updates on Kagome had started slowing down to one only every couple months he didn't take it too seriously. Kun-Loon had given him the excuse of Kagome hanging out with friends all of the time and that she wasn't home much. Or that she hadn't been doing anything new or noteworthy, though she had taken up archery. For being one of the smartest people of his time he really was stupid. He had taken Kun-Loon's excuses hook, line, and sinker.

He looked to the side and saw Clint napping in the hallway next to Kagome's door. He knew that he wasn't really in a deep sleep and could be awake at a moment's notice. Mostly everyone was catching up on some rest. The past day and a half had been extremely long. Natasha was resting next to Kagome herself, they were laying on Kagome's bed together and Natasha was idly playing with Kagome's hair. While she wasn't sleeping this was the most relaxed Natasha would get not outside of her own room at the tower. Bruce and Steve were resting downstairs, he was sure that Steve had been cleaning up a bit downstairs a bit.

He looked back at Kagome a frown coming over his face, he couldn't sleep. Since he couldn't sleep he may as well make himself useful. A determined look on his face as he descended the stairs.

Kagome woke up with a scream, her nightmare crawling through her mind. She felt somebody touch her shoulder and her mind went into the defensive. She twisted to attack whoever was in her personal bubble. Whoever was near her didn't attack though, they simply deflected her attack and held her close. Kagome's mind slowly registered curly red hair that her mind remembered as belonging to Natasha. After a few moments that seemed to stretch for eternity Kagome came to her senses. She looked to Natasha with tears in her eyes and Natasha gave her an understanding smile. Before Kagome could say anything, her hand shot to her mouth and she shot out of bed. Thankfully Natasha let her go without question. As she shot out of her room to the bathroom across the hall she noticed that Clint was in the process of getting up from sitting on the floor outside of her room. From her peripheral vision she saw Steve and Tony coming up the stairs, worried expressions on their faces. She didn't pay attention to anyone though, as her only target was the toilet. Within seconds she was in front of the toilet emptying her stomach. She almost flinched when she felt someone hold her hair back from her face but held herself back. She was extremely grateful to whoever was helping her. After about a minute of her puking violently she finally felt the nausea pass. She turned to see who had helped her and saw Clint looking at her with a knowing look. She sent him a thankful grin before she went to the sink to wash her mouth out.

"Thanks Clint, I really appreciate it. Apparently having a demon baby means your stuck with morning sickness until eight months in, the last four months will be blissful with no more morning sickness." She said with a shaky smile.

Clint gave her a smirk, "We'll help you through anything Kags, don't you doubt that. Now let's get you downstairs so you can eat something." He gave her a wink, "Now that you have some room. You are eating for two you know."

They walked downstairs and Kagome idly noted that everyone that had been coming up the stairs had all made their way back downstairs. When she made it into the kitchen she saw a small breakfast waiting for her. That wasn't the only thing that was waiting for her however.

Kagome's eyes went wide, "What is all this?" she asked in wonder at the dozens upon dozens of boxes strewn about her living room and kitchen.

A very tired looking Tony gave her a grin, "I couldn't sleep last night, I'm used to working on something. I figured that you would want as much from here as possible. So, I had Jarvis send a bunch of boxes up here and I recruited Steve and Bruce to help pack stuff up. We got pretty much everything from down here and outside around the shrine. All photos and family stuff are packed up."

Steve started up when Tony trailed off, "We didn't know how much you wanted from you mom or grandpa's room. But we did pack up all of your grandpa's books, scrolls, and trinkets in his room that we could get. His room was part of the bit where the roof collapsed. We took as much from your mom's room as well; the pictures she had in there, books, jewelry, and come clothes. We packed up almost everything from your brother's room besides the big stuff like the bed, desk, and bookcases."

"What?" Kagome asked in a small voice. She had a small idea of what was going on but her mind didn't want to register it.

Natasha put her hand on either side of Kagome's face to make her look into her eyes, "You will be leaving with us Mladshaya sestra. Where we can keep you safe from Naraku and any other demons that will come for the jewel. You will live in New York with all of us and everything that you want will be coming with us. We can keep the Shrine if you want, but I don't think it will be the best idea for you to stay here. Not only will the cops here not leave your family's death alone, but Naraku will know exactly where to come back to. You can come back here one day, just please promise me not until Naraku is dead." Natasha said seriously.

Kagome thought it over for a moment as Natasha dropped her hands before nodding, it really would be best and even being here now was a struggle for her, "Alright, then it's just my stuff we need to pack then… right?"

Tony nodded, "Yup and anything else that we didn't think was needed. You'd know best. Then as soon as we rescue your brother he'll come live with us too." He made sure to insinuate that rescuing her brother was a when, not an if.

She sent him a bright smile, "Thanks Mr. Stark."

Tony flinched, "Tony, please. We've been over this."

Kagome gave a nod, "Right… Tony. Sorry I forgot, Mama made sure manners were drilled into since I was little."

"It's alright kid, just remember from now on. Just call me Tony." He said with a note of finality.

Kagome sat down and Steve put a plate of breakfast in front of her and he gave a shrug, "Breakfast is pretty much the only meal I know how to make." He said.

"Thanks Steve it looks good." Kagome said sincerely.

They all heard Tony mutter, "Sure he's Steve." And lite laughter went throughout the room.

After they all ate a bit Kagome spoke up, "There isn't much of my stuff I need to bring with. Only my baggiest clothes fit me anymore and I really didn't keep all that many outfits over here to begin with. I spent most of my time over in the feudal era, especially after I finished high school. And my baby bump really grew since the last time I was over here. All I need is my decorations and keepsakes. There is a trunk in my closet that I can't forget, it has a bunch of memories from the feudal era." She looked thoughtful for a moment before she said, "Also if around here you find a yellow backpack and a red bow those need to come with as well. The backpack is the bag I brought with me to and from the feudal era and it has all of my essentials in it. The bow isn't a normal bow, it's got a mystical property to it and it has abilities that people shouldn't get their hands on. I'm pretty sure the bow was blessed by the Kami's, there are also rumors that it might have been the bow owned by Midoriko, the priestess who created the Shikon jewel." She explained.

"Right we can get on that after we are done eating. I'll have people pack it all up and send it to the tower, we'll beat everything there but it'll get there much quicker than it would normally." Tony told her.

"Thank you, I really mean it." Kagome said honestly. She didn't know what she would have done if they hadn't come. Still being stuck in the mental hospital was a pretty good guess.

"You speak really good English Kagome." Bruce commented after everyone had been quiet for a while.

She looked over to him and nodded, "My mom told me it was something I had to learn, something about the future. She never was super direct about why me learning English was so important. I always just assumed it was to talk to tourists that stopped by the Shrine. We were a pretty popular shrine. English was actually the only thing I didn't nearly fail at in school." She finished with a small giggle.

Tony's eyes widened, "You didn't do good in school?" he remembered her being a straight A student up until middle school. Kun-Loon had told him that she was doing as good as she always did.

Kagome gave shrug, "I never had time to study and I cannot tell you how many times my school books got destroyed. Usually by Inuyasha who didn't want me to split my dedication between the jewel and my studies. Eventually I just kinda gave up. I could tell Mama was a bit disappointed as I used to do really good in school, there were just more important things to worry about. Like not dying."

"Um…" Steve blurted out suddenly, his face kinda pink.

"Yes Steve?" Kagome asked patiently.

"Do… do you know the sex of your baby?" he asked quickly, like he was curious but also super embarrassed to ask.

Kagome shook her head, "No." she frowned slightly and Steve's look turned panicked, he hadn't meant to make her sad. "Sesshomaru and I were going to go back to his castle at the end of this month to find out. We aren't able to do a scan here as technology isn't able to see past the amniotic sac, there is a type of magic blocking it. Only a demon healer would be able to find out, and I don't exactly know how to get into contact with one of those in this time period. Though if Sesshomaru isn't here to find out with me I don't want to know, I'll let it be a surprise." She said with determinedly.

The rest of the meal passed with light conversation and talk about what needed to be packed up yet. After they were done eating they split up to pack up the rest of the house. They spent the next two hours making sure that Kagome had everything she wanted to save from her house. It had been decided, mostly by Kagome and Natasha, that Kagome would be sharing the floor with Natasha and Clint. Natasha and Clint's floor wasn't the most decorated as they weren't actually in it all that much so Kagome decided to practically bring the entire inside of her house.

Kagome headed outside to check and see what she could salvage from out there. Steve had mentioned that he had found her backpack that morning when he went for his morning jog. She had been extremely grateful and had given him a quick hug. What she hasn't been able to find yet was her bow, she really hoped that the police didn't take it as evidence or something. As she walked outside she looked up at the sky, she hadn't been outside since the night Naraku attacked. She didn't really count yesterday as she wasn't really paying attention, she was just glad to out of the hospital yesterday. Today was a new beginning though and she was going to enjoy it even if she had to force herself. Her mental state was not good and that in turn wasn't good for her baby. She needed to calm herself, being outside would help. It reminded her of being out in the forests in the feudal era.

An idea suddenly sprouted in her mind, forests. Aokigahara, she could go to Aokigahara. Why hadn't she thought of that earlier? It was only a little over two-hour drive to get there. Aokigahara had become a demon sanctuary within the last 500 years. It was where Bokuseno lived. If anyone could tell her what happened back then it would be Bokuseno. His roots stretched far and he heard many things. A small ball of hope started forming in her chest, maybe she could find out where Sesshomaru was. First of all, though she needed to find her bow. She did not go through all the trouble of almost dying to get it from Mount Azusa simply to lose it in a mental breakdown. She noticed that Clint was outside with her, a just in case bodyguard. Something that she knew would be a constant for quite a while.

She searched for almost a half hour when a lazy meow caught her attention. Kagome's eyes went wide, she would know that meow anywhere. Buyo?! She rushed to where the meow had come from, behind the house somewhere. When she got behind the house she heard it again and changed her direction slightly. What she found shocked her. Buyo was laying on top of her red bow, like he was protecting it. She had thought Buyo was dead or had at least wandered away to find food in the past three weeks. As Buyo saw her he got off the bow and Kagome picked it up slung it over her shoulder. Then she leaned down and picked up the lazy fat cat and hugged him to her. Buyo was definitely coming with her, Buyo was her Mama's cat.

She rushed back into the house, a large smile on her face as she cuddled the cat into her. Buyo was purring up a storm, apparently happy to be with his family member again. She got into the living room where everyone was gathering the last of the boxes together for whoever was picking them up later.

"Tasha look I found Buyo!" Kagome said excitedly, not letting go of her precious pet.

Natasha raised a slender eyebrow, "And your bow it seems."

Kagome blushed, "Right and my bow." Natasha let out a small chuckle as Kagome continued, "He can come with us, right? He was Mama's cat."

"Of course, he can." Tasha said sending Tony a warning glare, knowing he didn't like animals in his tower.

Tony nodded in agreement, "Right the cat totally come's with." He would be good for Kagome he added silently.

They all noticed Kagome's face harden into a determined look, "We need to go to Aokigahara before we leave Japan."

"Why do you need to go there?" Bruce asked, a worried tilt in his voice.

"What's so special about Aokigahara?" Steve asked confused, he didn't like the tone Bruce had asked in.

"Aokigahara is the most internationally known suicide forest in Japan. Hundreds of people go there each year to commit suicide." Tony said seriously, he had a slightly hard look in his eyes. He was suddenly very concerned for his daughter's health.

Kagome's eyes went wide in realization, they thought she wanted to commit suicide? God no she would never, "No, no. It's not that I swear. Aokigahara is where an old friend lives and I really need to talk to him." A small smirk appeared on her face, "How would you all like to meet your first demon?" she saw the interested looks on their faces and she shrugged slightly, not wanting to jostle Buyo too much "Well Tasha and Clint have met Inuyasha before."

"He was an idiot." Natasha said with a tilt of her head and Clint burst out laughing.

Kagome simply nodded in agreement, "Yes, but a lovable idiot." She looked around at all the boxes and she noted that her trunk from her closet was there with the boxes. "Is everything gathered up then?"

Clint nodded, "Yeah we got everything packed up that you want to take with us. Do you want to head over to Aokigahara then?"

Kagome nodded and started heading towards the door, with a shriek of fright her feet suddenly left the floor. She turned to glare at whoever scooped her up only to see Clint's smirking face. "What princess? It's not like you can make it down all those stairs."

She was actually not freaking out about Clint holding her so she huddled down in his arms and continued petting Buyo. She figured it was because she thought of Clint like a brother, family, pack. She figured that was why she was so comfortable around Tasha and wanted to be close to her all the time, she was pack as well.

They made it back into the car that they had taken yesterday and everyone piled in. Tony told the driver where they were headed and they headed off in comfortable silence for a while.

It was Bruce who broke the silence, his curiosity getting to him. "What kind of demon are we going to see?"

"Bokuseno is a tree demon. A very, very, very old tree demon. I'm not sure if anyone actually knows how old he is. He is very wise and he hears a lot. He might know what happened to Sesshomaru and the others." Kagome answered before thinking for a bit and continued talking, "Aokigahara is a demon sanctuary, mostly for lower level demons. Demons who don't have a human form and can't hide in society. Or other demons who don't want to hide their true selves."

"What are they like?" Tony asked, his curiosity taking over as well. There were times Tony's and Bruce's curiosity synced and this was one of them.

"Demons?" Kagome asked.

Tony nodded, "Yes. How do they differ from us?"

Kagome thought carefully, it was a difficult question to answer. "It depends on the demon really. Lower level demons are usually more primal mentally. They can be vicious when they want to be. Though they can have intelligence. Medium level demons can have human forms, but not very often. They usually have more animal or monster like appearance, but they do have intelligence. For instance, Jaken, he is a medium level demon. Though I don't know how smart he is. Kirara is also a medium level demon and she is really smart. High level demons have a human form, but also have an inner beast that they can transform into. Both of their forms can be very dangerous. They are just as smart as us, if not smarter.

"But like I said it depends on the demon, just like it depends on which human you meet. Some are mean and evil, some are so kind and love to help others. Most are neutral, guarded but won't attack first. They will defend themselves though. They are like us but with animal attributes and abilities." Kagome explained as best as she could.

The rest of the ride was spent talking amongst themselves and getting to know Kagome. They asked questions about her adventures that they weren't sure about and she answered to the best of her ability. After what seemed like forever they made it to the forest. Kagome got up, set Buyo down on the seat, and told him to stay. Buyo simply curled up and proceeded to take a nap.

"Do you need someone to help you?" Clint asked, looking down at her ankle.

Kagome shook her head as she took her bow off her back, holding it by her side. She had it hanging there casually but would be ready to pull it up at a second's notice. The Avengers noticed and suddenly became slightly nervous. "I'm not expecting a fight, but some of the lower demons might sense my Ki and decide to attack with no reason. There could also be old demons in here with a long memory and holding a grudge against me or my group."

"Won't you need arrows?" Steve asked confused looking at her lack of said weapons.

"No, I can use my Ki to form an arrow. I learned how to do it last year from an old priestess." Kagome explained before taking a breath and started her plunge into the think forest. She noticed that Tasha was right behind her, but the rest made a quick grab for some of their weapons.

"How many knives do you have on you right now?" Kagome asked casually.

"Seventeen, plus two handguns." Tasha said with a tilt of her lips.

Kagome laughed quietly as the rest of them caught up with them. They almost made it all the way without meeting a single demon. They were about half a kilometer away from Bokuseno when a small deer demon stepped into their path, a determined look on her young face. This was one of the high-level demon families that didn't want to hide their true self.

She couldn't have been older than twelve years old. She had short dark brown hair and freckles covered her face. The most prominent feature however were the antlers growing on her head. She stepped into their path and held her arms out, blocking their way. "You can't come any farther." She said determinedly.

Kagome saw the Avengers tense up at the age of the girl standing in front of them, "Why not?" Kagome asked casually.

"I won't let you get to Grandpa Bokuseno. You humans will hurt him." She growled at them.

Kagome felt warmness swell in her chest, this little girl was just trying to protect the ancient tree. She knelt down and put the bow around her shoulder to make her seem less threatening, "Bokuseno is an old friend of mine, I have no intentions to hurt him."

"Humans aren't allowed this far into the forest." She protested.

Kagome decided to change tactics a bit, "My name is Kagome Taisho, what is your name."

The girl looked put out for a second before saying quietly, "Aiko Yamaguchi."

"How old are you Aiko?" Kagome asked.

"I just ten." Aiko said, looking a bit confused.

Kagome nodded thinking about it, that would make her about a hundred years old. Too young to know anything about Miko's. She was going to explain it that way, but she probably wouldn't understand. Alright she could go a different way then, "I'm not a normal ignorant human Aiko, I'm mated to a demon."

Aiko's eyes went wide, looking at the Kagome's obvious baby bump, "Really?" she asked sounding a bit excited. "I've never met a human mated. Can I see your mark?" Kagome knew the subtle test that was being asked. Kagome nodded and pulled down the hem of her shirt. There sitting right above her heart was a crescent moon and the girl's eyes lit up. "I've never seen a mark like that before."

Kagome gave a sad smile, "It's a very old family, not many of them around anymore."

"Why are you here to talk to Grandpa Bokuseno?" she asked cautiously.

"Well you see my mate is missing and I would very much like to find him. I think Bokuseno might know where he is."

"That's horrible." The little girl cried out before rushing forward and grabbing Kagome's hand, pulling her forward. "Grandpa Bokuseno will help you out."

Kagome glanced behind her and smiled at the Avengers following behind her. They all had different reactions to the little girl pulling Kagome along. Kagome decided to ask the girl some questions before they got to Bokuseno. "Aiko are the lords still around?"

Aiko was quiet for a moment before answering, "They are, but they aren't very active anymore. It's hard for them to do much with so many humans around now, we are so outnumbered now. Mommy and Daddy tell me that a long time ago we were greater in numbers and there had been a reason for the lords to be leading. They do look over their districts though and help when they can. Each lord has a sanctuary in their territory that they send demons to if they need help. This is the western lord's sanctuary."

"Who are the lords now?" Kagome asked as casually as she could.

Aiko frowned, "You don't know?"

"My mate didn't find a need to tell me, but I might need to talk to them for help finding my mate." Kagome lied slightly. She knew who the lords were 500 years ago, but some of those had been old then and could very well be dead now. Plus, Sesshomaru was the western lord but he was missing, so who was ruling for him?

Aiko seemed to accept that answer, "The Southern lord is a bear demon called Hiromori Ando. Lady Yumiko Harada is the Northern lord, she's a raven demon. The eastern lord is Koga Okami, a wolf demon. The western lord is a bit more difficult as the true lord has been missing for the past 500 years apparently. It's currently being run by Lady Inukimi, the mother of the western lord. She is adamant not to name a new leader saying that the lord and heir would come back eventually."

That was a lot to process for Kagome. Hiromori Ando was the same as 500 years ago. She had never heard of Lady Yumiko before though, she was a new one. 500 hundred years ago the north was run by a badger demon. She wasn't surprised about Inukimi running the west however, she just didn't know what happened to Sesshomaru. She knew something had happened, otherwise he would have been there the day she was thrown back into the future. What shocked her the most was Koga. Koga was the eastern lord?! When had that happened?

"Koga Okami is the eastern lord?" Kagome practically screeched.

Aiko nodded, "Yup for the past 300 years he's been the eastern lord. He mated the granddaughter of the previous Lord."

Stars appeared in Kagome's eyes, "Koga and Ayami mated? Finally!"

Aiko looked at her with wide eyes, "You know Lord Koga and Lady Ayami?"

"They are old friends of mine." Kagome answered, "I'm not sure where they are living now though. Do you know where the lords live?"

Aiko shook her head, "No we live pretty isolated here. I've heard Lord Koga comes by occasionally comes to visit Grandpa Bokuseno. Grandpa Bokuseno would probably know though." Kagome was about to answer when they suddenly walked into a small clearing that held the great demon Bokuseno, "Here we are." She let go of Kagome's hand and skipped over to the old tree. "Hey Grandpa wake up, there are some people here to talk to you." She turned back to the group she had led there, "It was nice to meet you. I'll give you some privacy, good luck finding your mate." Then she skipped away and disappeared into the woods.

They all turned their attention to the tree that slowly opened his eyes, there was silence before Bokuseno spoke. "Ah Shikon Miko, it has been a long time. I feared we would not meet again. It is good to see you and Sesshomaru's little one well."

Kagome smiled, "Hello Bokuseno, I need your help."

Bokuseno smiled back at her, "I do believe I can give you the answers you seek."


	6. Old friend

Kagome found herself at a loss. Now that she was standing here in front of Bokuseno, who would have answers to her questions… she was scared to ask them. She was scared to know what happened to everyone else, what if everyone she knew was dead? What if Sesshomaru, her mate, was dead? What about Shippo, her beloved little kit?

"Kagome are you alright?" Clint asked concerned.

"I'm scared." She said quietly.

Bokuseno gave her a patient smile, "Nothing in life is to be feared child, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that you may fear less."

Kagome gave him a shaky smile before nodding and taking a deep determined breath, "What happened to them?" she asked quietly.

"I'm afraid you must be more specific child, there are many you could be speaking of." He wasn't saying it to be mean, there truly were many she could be asking about.

"Sesshomaru." Kagome's voice was barely a whisper, she needed to know what happened to him first.

Bokuseno gave a weary breath, "Your mate has been sealed away young one."

The color drained from Kagome's face as her eyes grew wide, "Sealed?" she felt Natasha wrap her arms around her shoulder to keep her standing.

"Unfortunately, yes. He lost control of his beast and started rampaging. The loss of you and the one growing inside you broke the western's lord iron clad grip on his beast. He became inconsolable and no one could calm him down. Sesshomaru though you dead once Naraku followed you though the well. He had forced Hakudoshi to summit to him before he tried for a month to find a way through the well, but the magic had been burned out when Naraku forced his way through. Many tried but nobody could stop him, he destroyed everything in sight. Inukimi had to make a difficult decision and was forced to use a very ancient technique to seal her son away."

"What kind of barrier did she use?" Kagome's voice was barely a whisper.

"An ancient spell that freezes whatever is trapped in the barrier in a single moment until it is broken."

If Natasha wasn't holding her up, she would have collapsed. Sesshomaru was stuck inside a barrier, frozen in time? "How can I break the barrier?"

Bokuseno smiled gently at her, "For you child, as easy as touching it. Inukimi made it so the barrier could only be broken by Sesshomaru's mate. As that would be the only thing that could calm his beast. If it were to be broken and you were not there, he would simply continue his rampage. Sesshomaru and the others locked in with him will stay in the barrier until you find where Inukimi has hidden the barrier."

"Others? What others were trapped with him?" Bruce asked the old tree.

"Hakudoshi and little Rin are contained inside along with the Western Lord. Both had been trying to calm the beast at the time Inukimi cast the barrier." Bokuseno answered him.

Kagome noticed the lack of one name that should have been with them, "What about Shippo?"

Bokuseno shook his head, "That is something I don't know young Miko. He went missing the same day you got sent back through the well."

"Missing?!" Kagome shrieked, "What do you mean he went missing? He was with Rin and Jaken. How is he missing but Rin was still there." She didn't really mean it how that came out, she cared about Rin just as much as Shippo. Rin had become her adopted daughter the moment she married Sesshomaru. She had known Shippo since her first month of going into the feudal era though. She had become his mother figure almost immediately, about a year later he had begun calling her mama. She had left Shippo with Rin, being protected by Jaken and Ah-Un. She wanted to know her son was okay!

"I am truly sorry child that I can not answer that question." Bokuseno said regretfully.

"Where is Inukimi living then? I can just go to her and then I can release Sesshomaru." She was desperate, she needed to be able to see somebody. Anybody from the feudal era.

"I can't answer that either I'm afraid. Inukimi went into hiding a century ago, demons started wanting to take the title of western lord from her. She went into hiding so that when you came back to break the barrier and free her son his title would be waiting for him. Inukimi never gave up hope that you were still alive and would come back. I fear she went back to her own castle, and wherever that has flown off to is anyone's guess."

"Flown off to?" Tony asked incredulously, "We are talkin about a castle, right?"

It was Kagome who answered, "Yes Inukimi has a floating castle." She smirked slightly, "Think Castle in the Sky, Laputa."

"How in the world does that work? Physics do no work like that!" Tony exclaimed, almost excitedly.

"Physics rarely apply when it comes to demons. They have magic to help them along." Kagome explained.

"What about Koga then? Aiko said that he's the Eastern Lord. Do you know where Koga is?" Maybe he could help her out.

Bokuseno smiled, "That one I can thankfully answer for you. Koga and Ayame have their home base located in America now. New York, I believe he told me the last time he came to visit. I do not have an exact location for you though, you will have to search for him yourself." He looked right into Kagome's eyes, "Is there anything else you wish to ask child?"

Kagome shook her head. If she were to continue asking questions she would never leave. She had a lead right now, a goal. Find Koga and Ayame. If she could find those two then maybe they could help her search for where Sesshomaru was. Plus, she needed to warn them that Naraku was around in this time and probably coming after Koga for the last loose jewel shard.

"Nuro, come here please." Bokuseno said suddenly. The group watched as an adult with green skin and moss like hair walk out from behind a nearby tree, "I have a favor to ask of you. Could you go and fetch the two I was talking about earlier?"

The man called Nuro apparently nodded silently, giving Kagome a long look before turning and disappearing into the forest.

"I have to be honest young one I knew you were coming, I felt your presence the moment you entered the forest. I have a surprise that I am sure you shall appreciate. Now why don't you sit down for a bit young one, you seem to be needing a break from standing. Nuro should be only a moment as I told who he is going to collect to stay close."

Kagome sat down on a nearby rock, to relieve the pain of her ankle. "Who is he going to get?" she asked curiously.

Bokuseno simply gave her a knowing smile but kept silent.

Tony decided that now would be a good time to discuss matters of Kagome moving in, "So Kagome, you'll be staying on Natasha's floor. They have a couple empty rooms that you should be able to pick from. When we get back today we can just have you mostly just settle in today. All of your stuff should arrive by tomorrow afternoon. Tomorrow sometime you, Natasha, and Pepper could go out and do some shopping for you. You said yourself that you'll need some new clothes. Plus, you can get anything else you think you'll need. You can take one of my cards with you. Think of it as an all-inclusive shopping trip."

Kagome frowned slightly, "I don't want to be a bother, I'll pay you back somehow. Also, who is Pepper?" She said thoughtfully. She hadn't even thought about that before. Quite honestly it should have been something she was thinking about, but she had plans on staying in the feudal era before that was painfully ripped from her. She now had to support not only herself, but her baby as well. How in the world was she going to do that? She didn't really have experience in anything other than fighting demons, making feudal remedies and poisons, and shooting arrows. She had really given up on schooling after her first year of trying to balance everything out. Where in the world could she find a job?

Tony was also having a troubling thought process, he was at a crossroads. He knew that he had every right to spend as much of his money on Kagome as he wanted, he was her father. She didn't know that though, all she knew was he was her mom's college friend. He didn't want her wanting to pay him back, even if it was a nice gesture. Nobody had ever wanted to pay him back for the money he's spent on them before. Their mindset was always he was a billionaire so he wouldn't need the money back. Which was totally true, he wasn't hurting for money and he never would be. But that didn't help that Kagome, his daughter, was apprehensive about taking money from him.

"Oh, right you wouldn't know her. Pepper is my girlfriend and the CEO of my company. She's got a love of shopping for anything really and will most likely jump at the opportunity to have a girl's shopping day. But Kagome if you really want to find a job, I'm sure that we could help with that. I don't know how much we'll want you too far away from the tower with Naraku out there. The bastard could jump out at any time, we don't know where he is yet. But if you do get a job, do it for yourself. You're no bother Kagome. You can ask anyone, I spend money on the most useless things. Money is really not an issue for me. This way my money is being used for something productive. That and I literally won't accept any money from you. The money you make belongs to you, you earned it kid."

Kagome frowned again, not happy with that answer. She would find a way to repay him, somehow. Not only was he allowing her to live in his tower but he was also paying for anything that she would need. She could hear the determination in his voice however so she let it drop for now. "We'll see." She said instead before changing topics, "How will we find Koga?"

"I'll have Jarvis start looking for him the moment we get to the plane. His full name is Koga Okami, right? If he's going by that name it shouldn't be too hard to find him." Tony said as he quickly wrote a memo in his phone. He aggravatingly didn't have any reception here, he was blaming it on demon magic because he should have reception everywhere.

"Jarvis is your AI, right? When will I get to actually meet him?" Kagome asked, she has heard a lot about Jarvis and was intrigued by him.

"I'll let you fully meet him at the tower, he's more connected there than anywhere else. Oh, I'll have to get you a phone that has Jarvis connected into it. That way if you ever need anything you can just ask Jarvis. He's a real miracle worker in a pinch."

Bokuseno gave a low chuckle at the banter going on between the two, everyone else had just been watching and listening in amusement. It was odd for them knowing that Tony was finally having an opportunity to talk with his daughter, but Kagome not knowing at all. They would need to see when Tony was thinking of telling her, none of them wanted to let it slip by accident. That would probably not end well at all. "You are always able to surround yourself with colorful personalities aren't you Kagome?"

Kagome shrugged with a small smile, "Inuyasha said I had an annoying ability to pull people towards me. That I was able to make friends with anybody, even people who were supposed to be my enemy. It always annoyed him, but it wasn't like I tried to do it on purpose. I just don't see the world as black and white as he did."

"Ah, I do believe Nuro is coming back with our guests. Do prepare yourself Miko." Bokuseno said, with a small smirk.

Kagome was able to think 'prepare herself how?' before she was tackled by a small yellow ball of fur. Once she realized what was clinging to her shirt, purring constantly, Kagome's heart soared. "Kirara!" she shouted happily. She hugged the small kitten into her and for a brief moment she was truly happy. Not only had she found Buyo, but she also gained Kirara back all in the same day. Then her mind remembered that there was supposed to be two people she knew coming and she turned to look at Bokuseno to see who else was here and her jaw dropped in astonishment. Out of everyone, he was here?

"Jaken?" she chocked out.

Jaken gave her a look that was a mix of annoy-ment and happiness, "You're finally back wench, now my lord can be released."

Kagome felt everyone around her bristle at the way Jaken was treating her, but for Jaken that was him being nice. She rolled her eyes, "Good to see you too Jaken."


	7. Jaken

"What the hell is that?" Clint yelled out looking at Jaken who turned to scowl at him.

Kagome rolled her eyes, "That would be Jaken." She said simply.

Natasha nodded with a smirk, "Ah, the annoying one." Kagome nodded in return.

Steve however was glaring at Jaken, a frown on his face, "That is no way to talk to a lady."

Kagome laughed lightly at Steve's attempt to defend her, "It's fine."

Before she could say anything else Tony interrupted her with a frown of his own, "No. It's really not. You shouldn't be alright with being treated like that."

Kagome laughed again, "No you don't understand. That is Jaken being nice." Any nicer and he would be worshipping her like he did to Sesshomaru. The moment she married Sesshomaru she became his lady. He started treating Shippo and herself much nicer than her previously had. He still treated everyone else like crap, which had annoyed Inuyasha to no end. A frown came over her face as she turned her now icy gaze onto the small Kappa demon.

"Jaken." She used the tone of voice that she usually used right before sitting Inuyasha. Jaken seemed to pale slightly, looking at her with wide eyes. Internally she grinned, it looked like even after 500 years Jaken was still wary of her temper. Externally, however, she was channeling her inner Sesshomaru.

"Ye-yes Miko?" Jaken stuttered at her. it looked like Jaken wanted to be anywhere else.

"Did I, or did I not trust you to watch over my children in my absence." She asked coldly.

"You did Miss." Jaken said, showing an odd form of respect for her. Right now, it wasn't Kagome lecturing Jaken. No, right now, it was the lady of the west questioning her retainer.

"So please explain to me why one of them is contained inside a barrier with my mate, and the other one is MISSING!" she was calm through all of it but screamed the last word. It hurt her throat, but at the moment she could really care less.

Jaken bowed his head in apology, "I am very sorry. I couldn't do anything with Shippo or Rin. I have failed you and Mi Lord."

Kagome sighed, her anger deflating. She had never seen Jaken genuinely apologize before. Sure she had seem him flail for apologies to Sesshomaru before, but he had never really meant it before. She sat back down, having stood in her anger, "What happened Shippo, Jaken? What happened to my baby?"

Jaken spoke a single word and it felt like Kagome's very soul froze, "Naraku."

"What?" Kagome whispered in horror. Tasha sat down next to her, pulling her into a side hug. Kirara made her way to Kagome's shoulder and started purring, trying to help calm her down.

"I only told Lord Sesshomaru and Lady Inukimi before. Nobody else needed to know and they could mind their own business." Jaken grumbled out, "Very shortly after you all rushed to Edo to find the cause of the fire, we were ambushed by Naraku. Ah-Un tried to fly off with the kids but was shot down by Naraku. Rin got knocked out in the fall. Shippo tried to protect her."

Kagome nodded, a tiny smile on her face, "He was always a brave boy and protected the ones he cared about." He had started thinking of Rin of a sister once Sesshomaru and herself started courting. He had lost a lot in his young life and he was very protective of the ones he had left. It was why she had ended up leaving him behind with Rin towards the end. He almost always got hurt every time he tagged along with the fighting group.

"Brave is one way to explain him, foolish is another." Jaken scoffed before continuing, "I tried fending Naraku off, but all I had was my staff. I'm surprised that Naraku didn't just kill us all. I was knocked out, when I workup it was just Ah-Un, Rin, and myself. Neither Naraku nor Shippo was around. I stayed to protect Rin until Sesshomaru came back. When he did I had never seen Mi Lord so angry and cold before. He was literally blocking his emotions off, trying to stay in control of his beast. He told me about your group's death. Then he told me how he tried to protect you only to most likely send you off to your death. He had no idea that Naraku could follow you through the well. Before then only the mutt could follow you through.

"When Mi Lord finally lost the battle to his beast I wasn't around either. I was in Lady Inukimi's library trying to find something to help Mi Lord per his orders. Sesshomaru hadn't been letting Rin out of his sight since the battle of Edo. She was the only thing he had left to teether himself to. Hakudoshi practically became Mi Lord's shadow once he had forced him to submit. I think I remember him saying that only Mi Lord was worth his time, or something like that. I heard Mi Lord's rampage, but there was nothing I could do. Hours passed before everything fell silent. That night Inukimi told me what she had been forced to do. It had either been that or killing him. Lady Inukimi couldn't make herself harm her son so she sealed him away. She then gave me a job for the future. She was always sure about your survival. Always saying that you weren't dead and the heir still lived as well. The job she gave me was to gain as much knowledge I could that would he helpful to you over 500 years. Then when it came to your time once again I was to go with you and aid you in your journey." Jaken folded his arms with a huff, "I only agreed as it would help Mi Lord." He said not looking at her.

Kagome smiled at him. He truly did care about her. his pride simply didn't allow him to actively show it. "Thank you Jaken."

Jaken nodded slowly, looking up to human his Lord had fallen so hard for. They hadn't known exactly when she could come out of the well, and it was very easy to lose track of time over 500 years. Jaken had actually watched Kagome grow up some. He came from Inukimi's cast to live here in Aokigahara when Kagome was six-years-old. He had been at the shrine the day Kagome was pulled down the well. It had been an odd feeling when the well activated. Unfortunately, he had not been there the day she came through for the last time, Naraku following. He had gone the next day to find the shrine destroyed and humans had been talking about how Kagome had been put in a hospital. After that he knew it was just a waiting game for Kagome to come and talk to Bokuseno. He was secretly very happy that his Lord's mate seemed to be fine for the most part.

Kagome sighed tiredly. Why couldn't everyone just be safe and next to her. her mind drifted towards one of the nights they had stayed at Sesshomaru's castle. She had been trying to get the kids to go to sleep. Shippo had been sitting on her lap, wiggling in excitement for her to read to him. Rin was sitting so close to her side she was practically attached. Rin had grown up as an orphan in feudal Japan. Needless to say, she had never had a bedtime story before. Sesshomaru was sitting right behind her, she had been leaning on him slightly. He was simply content to be around his little family. She had ended up having to read three short stores before the kids had fallen asleep. She had carried Shippo while Sesshomaru carried Rin. They put them both into the bed in Rin's room. Sesshomaru had offered to give Shippo his own room, but they had both wanted to share a room. That night had been the most content that she had felt in a long time.

Now; not only did Naraku have her little brother under his control, he also held her kit captive. Her mate was prisoned in a barrier with her daughter. Both of her families were now dead… of how she wished she could go back a month and warn herself. No, she needed to move toward the future. First step was to find Koga. He might know where Inukimi's flying castle was. Once she found Inukimi she could tell where she had hidden away her mate. Then she would free Sota from Naraku's grasp and save her kit. She wouldn't be alone either, both Natasha and Clint would help her. She knew that, they had made that very clear. Maybe they could get Shield to help her look for Koga.

"Are you alright Kagome?" she looked up to see Bruce looking at her in concern.

"I'm as fine as I can be considering everything. I guess I just realized how much I have to do to get my family back to me." She answered him, a pained smile coming through.

"You'll have all the help you need." Tony said, looking very serious. From what she had heard about him it seemed a bit weird, "Seriously if you need anything, and I mean _anything_ simply let myself or Jarvis know."

She gave him a grateful smile, "Thank you Tony. I really do appreciate it." She looked at the billionaire, she hoped that after a while he could tell her the full truth of why he came to help her so quickly. She knew that he wasn't lying. But he wasn't telling her the whole truth either. She could tell he was really good at telling half-truths, she herself had gotten pretty good at telling them herself the past four years. She could usually tell when someone was telling her half-truths. She simply hoped he would eventually tell her.

Suddenly Kagome realized how long they had been in the forest. It had to have been more that two hours. She was sure that Tony had been planning on leaving sooner.

She turned to Jaken a slight grimace on her face, she would have to take him with her. Inukimi obviously wanted her to have Jaken at her side. she only really had two problems with that. The first problem was that she wasn't sure if Tony would like Jaken in his tower. Jaken really wasn't the nicest demon personality wise, especially to humans. The second reason was that Jaken was really only tolerable in short bursts. In the long term he could become extremely annoying. Especially with Sesshomaru not around to reign him in.

She turned to Tony, a wary look in her eyes, "It's alright that Jaken and Kirara come with us, right?"

Tony turned to look at the small green thing. It was glaring at him, daring him to say no. he turned back to his daughter who was still being hugged by Romanov. Huh, he thought idly, he didn't know she could be so… motherly. "The toad is house trained, yeah?" he asked glancing at the toad once again. It was an odd and mean little thing.

Kagome burst out laughing, the first true laugh any of them had heard from her. Jaken bristled at the statement, "I am a Kappa demon, not a toad." He growled out Jaken didn't seem to register the other part of Tony's statement.

Finally, Kagome control of her amusement and managed to nod at Tony, "Yeah, he's good."

Tony then shrugged, "Then yup they are fine to come along then." He took out his phones and added anther memo to Jarvis' to do list. As soon as his phone got reception Jarvis would have a lot to keep him busy. Right now, Kagome wanted to share a floor with Romanov and Barton which was totally fine and understandable. However, when she got better mentally and physically she would probably want her own floor. Especially once she got some of her family back. He realized that his daughter had a large family, especially for being so young. She was only nineteen, almost twenty now, but still only nineteen. He did a mental headcount. There was her husband, two children and one on it's way, two cats, a toad, her younger brother, and herself of course. There was also that other boy that was trapped in the barrier, he would most likely come as well. He didn't know how long it would be before she would want her own floor, but he might as well start getting it ready now. So, he had to plan the floor for six people, a toad, and two cats. Shouldn't be too hard. He would need to furnish everything, sticking close to her Japanese upbringing. Three of the people wouldn't know anything about the past 500 years, he didn't know how much the fox kid would know either. He was here but he was probably very isolated. He also knew that Kagome herself liked to read, that was one thing Kun-Loon had told her about. He would turn of the larger rooms into a library. He would stock it with history books about the past 500 years. Both Japan and the U.S. as that is where they would be living for now. Then there would be the two cats; he would need to stock the common floor, Romanov's floor, and Kagome's future floor with cat supplies. Litter boxes, food, cat toys, stuff for them to climb on, and things for them to claw up so they didn't need to claw his own stuff.

Then he needed to think that a baby was on it's way. In six months a baby would be in his tower. He was going to have to baby proof absolutely EVERYTHING! The tower was definitely not baby proof. Baby things were going to need to be ordered as well.

The final thing for the immediate moment was he needed to see if Kagome had a picture of this Koga guy. If she did he could get Jarvis working with Shield to run a facial search. Working on only a name would only get him so far. Especially if the man knew how to stay hidden. He had been around for more than 500 years apparently.

Kagome's voice broke him out of his thoughts, "Thank you Tony." She turned to Jaken, "So is there anything you need to grab before we leave?"

Jaken nodded quickly and turned to Bokuseno, "Could I have the staff back?"

Bokuseno nodded and suddenly the two-headed staff Jaken usually had on him at all times started coming out of Bokuseno. Bokuseno gave Kagome a knowing look, "Watch him Shikon Miko, he is slightly trigger happy with that staff of his. Had to take it away as he almost burned down the forest."

Kagome rolled her eyes and looked at the Kappa, "No setting things on fire Jaken. That is rule number one."

"Rules?" Jaken asked incredulously.

Kagome nodded seriously, "Yes I will tell you them as I think of them. Like I said, no setting things on fire."

Jaken almost seemed to pout but nodded in agreement as he grabbed the staff and held it close, like he was scared she would take it away.

Kagome turned to look at Bokuseno one last time, "It was good to see you. I will be back to visit later on."

Bokuseno nodded with a smile, "I hope to see your young one next you visit."

They took about a month to gather themselves together. Kirara stayed firmly on Kagome's shoulder. It seemed like the cat was not leaving her perch anytime soon. Jaken was taking the lead as he knew the best way out. Clint was supporting Kagome so she could take some pressure off her ankle. It took about a half hour of walking but they finally made it back to the car.

Buyo looked up at them lazily as they entered. As Kagome sat down he made himself comfortable on her lap. A smile snuck on her face as she started patting him. She watched in amusement as Kirara playfully batted the other cat with her twin tails. Buyo in turn pawed lazily at her. she was happy that they go along. Buyo wasn't one to get along with other cats usually and Kirara wasn't a normal cat. She may look like a cat, but she was still a demon.

Tony told the driver to head towards the airport. They had been driving for almost twenty minutes when a thought came to mind. They had been talking aimlessly, just chatter to fill the silence.

"Hey Jaken? Where is Ah-Un?" she wasn't sure if the dragon was even still alive. Most demons could hide pretty well, but a giant dragon? She highly doubted that he was living within the trees of Aokigahara.

He stayed up with Inukimi in her castle when I came to Aokigahara." Jaken explained from the floor. There hadn't been anymore seats available in the car. They were lucky to have snuck into the car without the driver noticing. She was glad Tony had a private jet so they wouldn't' have to sneak Jaken to America somehow. Though it would have been amusing to try and sneak him in a cat carrier.

Kagome nodded to show he's heard him. Him staying with Inukimi was a good idea, he wouldn't have to hide and would have place to fly around. She was suddenly really tired. She leaned on Clint and he shifted slightly so she could get more comfortable, "Go ahead and rest Gome."

"Wake me up when we get to the airport?" she said sleepily.

Clint chuckled, "We'll see kid. Sleep, gods know you need your rest."

"M'kay." She said before succumbing to the tiredness that had suddenly came over her. it had been happening for about a month and a half now. A few days a week she would just get randomly tired in the middle of the day. When she was still with her group she would either lay on Ah-Un or Sesshomaru would carry her.

She just hoped that they got to America quickly. She wanted her family back and America was her first step.


	8. Going home

Steve looked down at the sleeping Kagome, slightly conflicted, "Should we wake her up?"

Clint shook his head, "No let her sleep, it looks like she needs as much rest as she can get. I'll carry her to the plane, no worries."

Jaken glared at the human, "Don't you dare do anything to hurt her human." Jaken did not like humans. They were loud and messy, they were slowly destroying the earth and they simply didn't care. Humans also had a tendency to betray people they say they care about. He hadn't had to deal with humans for over 300 years. The only humans that he had been around in the past 500 years were those who were mated to demons and they were easier to deal with. When they weren't with their mates they usually stuck together with other humans. He knew how to avoid those spots. There weren't any human mates within Aokigahara though, so the past thirteen years or so had been blissfully human free. Now he was going to have to spend all of his time around them, he was dreading it. He did not trust these humans, not at all.

Clint glared at the green demon, "Kagome is like my little sister, don't think for a second I would do anything to harm her you annoying imp."

Jaken glared but didn't say anything else, he got out of the vehicle and followed the humans that had already left, going towards the plane. Natasha grabbed Buyo and shot Clint a look before getting out of the car. She was going to have a hard time not killing the imp, especially after the stories Kagome had told her. Clint gathered Kagome into his arm and carefully followed Natasha. As he stood up he situated Kagome so she would be more comfortable, he made sure not to wake her up. Within the next moment he felt something land on his shoulder. He looked over to see Kirara balancing there. He gave her an amused look, "You don't plan on letting her out of your sight, do you?"

Kirara shook her head negatively, digging her claws into his shirt slightly. Like she was daring him to make her leave. He chuckled slightly and followed everyone else to the plane. He remembered Kagome saying that Kiara was extremely smart and she would understand everything they said. He hadn't really believed her until now though.

Once he settled Kagome into a chair and strapped her in Kirara jumped off his shoulder landing next to Kagome before making herself comfortable on Kagome's lap. They then took off towards New York. Just under thirteen hours later they landed in JFK international airport.

Kagome woke up as the plane landed feeling more rested than she had in almost a month. She looked around confused when she realized she wasn't inside of the car she fell asleep in. Where was she? When she looked over to see a smirking Clint she realized what had happened, "You didn't wake me up did you?" she looked down to see Kirara curled up on her nap and Buyo snuggled right next to her.

Clint chuckled, "Nope." He said popping the P. He got up and made his way over to her. He scooped her up and she gave a slight shriek of protest. Kirara resumed her perch on Clint's shoulder. This time Bruce picked up the fat lazy cat. He started purring letting his pleasure known. Kagome grinned slightly at the sight, it looks like Buyo likes Bruce. Buyo was a very good sense of character. She should know, the cat had hated Hojo.

She ignored the fact that she had to be carried. She hated the fact that she couldn't do things by herself. She was a very independent person and needing someone to help her was killing her. Even if she trusted that person with her life. She knew as soon as she got to her new home she was healing her ankle. She would finally be able to drop the barrier around the jewel. It wouldn't have to be invisible anymore so that would take the most strain off her powers. She knew that she would have to drop the whole barrier at first. Her powers had been contained to a central spot for so long that once she let her power rest it would release all at once. She knew she could trust Clint and Tasha to stop any possible demons that would come for it. She was worried how far her shockwave of power would go and who it would alert to her location, but she NEEDED her mobility back!

It took another forty-five minutes before they made it back to the tower. Kagome insisted to walk by herself to the elevator as they parked only a few feet from it. Tony had directed his driver, who he called Happy, to park in the underground parking lot. The less people who knew that she was here the better. Clint stayed close by just in case her leg gave out on her but did let her walk by herself.

Tony was positively giddy with excitement as the elevator made it's way down to them. Kagome herself was rather amused at his excitement. He was finally going to introduce her to Jarvis. He practically corralled her into the elevator, everyone else following amused. Tony had never been this excited to introduce Jarvis to anyone before. Then again this was the first time that he was showing something of his to his daughter. Not that Kagome knew that was the reason he was so excited. As the elevator started going up Tony grinned.

"Jarvis, I would like to officially introduce Kagome Taisho. Kagome, meet Jarvis." Tony said, grinning like a madman.

"Nice to meet you Mrs. Taisho, I am pleased to see you are doing well." Jarvis greeted.

Kagome jumped slightly at the sudden voice, not expecting it, but then a smile appeared on her face, "Nice to meet you too Jarvis. Please just call me Kagome."

"Very well Miss Kagome."

"I would like to thank you for helping to save me. I would still be stuck at that hospital if it wasn't for you." She said sincerely. This was kinda like talking to Myoga she thought to herself.

"It was not a problem Miss Kagome. My pleasure entirely." Jarvis commented.

Kagome let out a light laugh, "Well still, thank you." She then turned her attention to Natasha, "So now what?"

Natasha gave her a small shrug, "All of your stuff won't be in until late tonight, so it would probably be best to leave unpacking until tomorrow."

Tony cut in, "When I called Pepper earlier she put in some orders. Your room on Romanov's floor should have all the furniture you'll need. I know she bought you some clothes as well. Not much, just enough to get you through a few days. Sometime tomorrow you could sit down with Pepper and order any clothes that you want. As for today yet, is there anything that you would like to do?"

The elevator doors opened and they walked out into the common room. Kirara looked around the room curiously from her spot, on top of Kagome's head. Jaken scoffed at the interior of the building. Lady Inukimi's castle was much more elegant. This place had 'human' written all over it.

Kagome made her way to a seat by the window. The view was amazing from here. As she sat down she explained, "I want to heal my ankle. To do that thought the barrier I have around the jewel will drop. It may draw any demon's attention around here."

Steve looked art her worriedly, "You still have the jewel with you?" Natasha and Clint had explained all of her adventure on the plane ride back. He hadn't noticed the jewel on her at all though.

"Of course, she would you idiot. She's the only one that can keep it pure." Jaken spat out at him, Kagome gave him a warning glance.

Bruce's mind went on another path, "You're able to heal yourself?" Clint hadn't mentioned anything about that.

The rest looked at her curiously, "Yes I can heal myself, not as well as I can heal others though." Then she looked over to Steve, "Ignore Jaken, yes I do have to jewel. If the shards were anywhere else there would be big trouble."

Natasha raised an eyebrow, "Where did you hide it Gome?" she asked in amusement also giving a silent go ahead to release her barrier.

Kagome looked down and grabbed the invisible jar that held the jewel shards. With a quick flash of pink light, the barrier shattered. A shockwave of pure light power rushed out in every direction, causing the avengers to stumble slightly. When she opened her hand the far was hanging innocently around her neck, "I had to hide it from the police and hospital staff."

Tony approached with stars in his eyes, "You had that necklace invisible for three weeks? How did you manage that?"

Kagome grinned at his eagerness to learn, "Kaede and Miroku taught me. Kaede knew how to do it and Miroku actually had the power to show me how to accomplish it. I spent almost two months learning how to do it. It was really hard but completely worth it. The pros of being able to make something invisible for an extended amount of time was too good to pass up on."

"You seem to have mastered a lot of abilities. You were a normal girl until you turned fifteen, right? What was that like?" Tony asked. He figured it would be the best way to find out more about Kagome without seeming to dig for information.

Buyo jumped up to squeeze himself between her and the chair, Kagome started mindlessly petting him, "When I began it felt like I was drowning in responsibility. I never wanted to become a shrine maiden like Gramps wanted. I wanted to become a doctor, which is why I caught onto the healing ability I have so quickly. Over time things got easier. Sometimes it still feels really surreal that I'm able to do all these things, I was just a normal kid. Other times if feels like I've been doing this forever." She gave him a tight smile, "That was a bit confusing, I don't know if that answered your question, sorry."

"No that made plenty of sense." Tony said, a serious look on his face. He totally understood what she was saying. He felt that way about being Ironman all the time. From what it sounded like she had started her adventure slightly before he had been kidnapped.

Clint looked at the time and frowned, "We should get something to eat. We need to make sure that you are kept well fed." He said with a wink before walking to the take-out brochures. "I'm feeling Chinese what about you guys." When he got murmurs of agreement he nodded and walked off to place the large order.

There was a slightly awkward silence as he walked away. The avengers weren't sure what to say to the girl. Kagome had started to simply stare out of the window, petting her cat. It was almost like she had lost focus on the room around her, getting lost in the scenery outside.

"Shall I put on a movie Sir?" Jarvis asked, breaking the silence.

Tony sighed in relief, thankful for his AI, "Yeah why don't you do that J. We can have a movie day. Play whatever is next on Cap's catch up playlist."

Natasha moved over to Kagome, "Hey Gome why don't you heal your ankle and then we can go watch the movie with the boys. How does that sound?"

Kagome looked away from the view and gave a strained smile to Tasha, "Sure." She leaned down and placed her glowing hands over her ankle. Within a few minutes her ankle was almost completely healed. It would still be a bit sore the next day, but she would be able to walk and even run on it if the need arose. Now that she was somewhere safe and things had calmed down her mind was starting to retreat once again. It had done that daily at the hospital. There were so many things that she just didn't want to think about and her mind kept going to them without her even trying. So, to combat that mental pain she tended to simply shut down. She knew it wasn't a healthy thing for her to do, but she simply didn't care at the moment. She thought things had been bad at the hospital, now that she was out she had learned that it was so much worse. She had had hope for Sesshomaru, Shippo, and Rin. Now she knew that two of them were trapped within a barrier while the other was with the devil himself. She knew that she couldn't do anything, not right now. She had no idea where Sesshomaru and Rin were so she couldn't rescue them. She also couldn't go looking for Naraku, that would be a suicide mission. If she wasn't pregnant than she probably wouldn't have cared, but she had a life growing inside of her to look after. She didn't have anyone to back her up this time. Sure, she had the Avengers. They had no idea how to battle demons though. Demons could have wide ranges of powers and abilities. Naraku himself had a vast number of tricks to fall back on. His miasma alone would be enough to kill them and that was just a single power he contained. He would also have hundreds, if not thousands, of demons to fight for him. Plus, Kanna and her brother. The only reason that she was not giving into the grief was because of her baby. She had to try and stay strong for her baby.

Her mental decline wasn't entirely her fault either however. Mates were not meant to be kept apart from each other. Sesshomaru had lasted a long time before he gave into his beast's sorrow and rage. While Kagome didn't have an inner beast she still felt the loss of her mate within her soul. It was a general rule that mates could go a few weeks apart with not contact and have no side effects, only if the separation was willingly done. If they were split apart against their wills then a strain started to build almost immediately. It wasn't that bad for most mates, however her and Sesshomaru had done a soul bond. That strengthened the mate bond significantly and made separation all that more painful and difficult. So, Kagome being forcefully split from her mate added upon the deaths of both of her families meant the stress built up so much her mind simply didn't want to manage it. The easiest way for her mind to process everything while not breaking down completely was to just shut down.

Kagome glanced over to Jaken and realized that he would most likely be her shadow until the unforeseen future. He knew all about the strain of mates being apart, but he wouldn't know how Kagome herself was dealing with it. When they were alone later tonight she would explain things to him. It would most likely become his job to help her with daily things. Reminding her to eat, telling her to get up and do something, get some exercise, do training with her powers so she didn't get slack with her Ki. He would probably find the whole situation tedious and beneath him, but she knew he would do it. He could complain a lot, but he would do it. It would keep him out of the hair of the others around here as well so that was a plus.

Kagome got up, picking Buyo up, and followed Tasha over the entertainment system. Her and Tasha sat in a chair together. It was just wide enough to hold the both of them. Kagome placed Buyo on her lap and Kirara snuggled into the crook of Kagome's neck. With a content sigh Kagome leaned into Natasha and settled in to watch a movie.

Natasha looked down at Kagome in concern. She was very worried for her little sister. Kagome had gotten lost in her mind very quickly just then. It was easy enough to break her out of it, but she was worried about how often it was going to happen. She would have to keep a closer eye on Kagome than she originally thought. Keep her engaged in a conversation. It seemed that as long as she was talking then she didn't retreat within her mind. "You doing okay Gome?"

Kagome nodded as she stared at the screen, "I'm good for now. It'll be nice to watch a movie. I haven't watched a movie in probably half a year. I never really stayed at home long enough to sit down and watch a movie." She said sadly. Kagome slightly regretted that now. She would never be able to settle onto the couch with her mother and watch a sappy love movie. Or watch a documentary with her grandfather as he picked them apart, he was wrong most of the time but Kagome never had the heart to tell him that. She held onto the hope that she would get to watch a movie with Sota in the future, hopefully the near future.

Clint sat onto the floor in between the legs of his two girls as the movie started. Clint grinned as the Princess Bride started playing, he loved this movie. He knew that Bruce or Tony would pick up the food when it arrived so he got comfortable while taking his chosen position between Kagome and Nat. He felt Nat kick him in the side for his choice of seat but he just chuckled and leaned onto her more. He didn't see her but he knew Nat rolled her eyes at him before accepting that he wasn't going to be moving anytime soon.

A half hour into the movie the food showed up and they paused it as everyone got up and got their food. As soon as they filled up their plates they got back to the same positions everyone had been in before. That movie ended and they started a different one. Halfway into that one he felt someone start playing with his hair. When he heard Nat chuckle slightly he knew it wasn't her. With a grin on his face he felt Kagome start putting tiny braids in hair. If anyone else had tried that he would have probably punched them, well not Nat that would be asking for it. The only other people that he let play with his hair was his wife and his daughter. Thinking of his family he would have to go back and visit soon. He would tell the group that he was assigned a mission and head home for a few weeks. Maybe he would bring Kagome with him, and Nat of course. He knew that his wife had wanted to meet Kagome. He didn't keep any secrets from his family and Laura had felt really bad for all that Kagome had to go through. Laura had said that the way he talked about her he had adopted her just as he had done Natasha. Well she really wasn't wrong.

After another two movies they decided to stop for the night. Kagome wasn't exactly tired as she had slept for thirteen hours already but she knew it would be easiest to get on used to the time zone here. She followed Clint and Natasha to their floor. The entirety of the back of Clint's hair was a mass of little braids. Kirara was in her arms asleep and Clint had hold of Buyo. Jaken was following behind everyone, acting almost like a sentry at the back. The room that Kagome was using was huge and her eyes widened as she looked it over. The bed was king sized and looked extremely comfortable to sleep on. The room was painted and decorated in neutral tones with tans and greens. There was a large cat condo on the one wall that Clint put Buyo down on. Kagome placed Kirara onto a pillow on the side of the bed she wouldn't be using. There was even a small short bed in the corner for Jaken. Kagome laughed slightly when she realized that it was originally a toddler bed that someone had attempted to look less kid-ish. Clint kissed her on the forehead goodnight before leaving the room toward his own which was just down the hall. Natasha stayed to show which drawer Pepper had put the pajamas in before hugging Kagome goodnight and leaving the room herself.

Kagome grabbed a set of pajamas, not really caring what they looked like. She would truly be happy with anything right now as she had practically nothing. She would still find someway to pay Tony back for all of this. Even if it wasn't in money. Ah she would have to think it over. She went to the connected bathroom and changed. Before she went to bed for the night she explained to Jaken what her mental state was like. She got to see a rare case of Jaken looking concerned for her before he told her that he would make sure she stayed healthy. She thanked him with a smile before laying down and turning out the light. Hopefully the coming weeks would be a bit easier on her.

Thousands of miles away in Japan the reaching edges of Kagome's shockwave of power reached a well-hidden barrier. Her Ki rolled around it lovingly before dissipating completely. Along one edge of the barrier a light flashed briefly before a small chunk fell away. A child sized sphere bounced to the ground before shattering. Leaving a white-haired child laying on the ground. He had managed to create a barrier of his own around himself before his master's mother had cast her own barrier upon them, saving him from the full force of the barrier's power. His eyes opened slightly, his thoughts on the power that allowed him to break free. His master's mate had made contact. He would follow his master's order to protect the Miko with all of his ability. With that thought his eyes drifted close as he succumbed to the calling darkness. First, he needed to rest. Hakudoshi had escaped the barrier.


	9. Intervention

Jaken frowned at the barely touched plate of food. Nearly a month had passed since they moved into the tower and his charge had been doing fairly well. Now it was like she was starting to lose her fight, which was simply unacceptable. She had night terrors every single night, but that was nothing new from what he had heard. She had been having those since the day she had come back from the feudal era. They have started getting worse lately however. She had taken to laying down for a nap in the middle of the day as her energy seemed to disappear from her. She had started having nightmares then as well in the past week, which she had never had before. For the past week she had started staying in her room where as before she would make her way up to that common room and simply look out over the view. Now she was starting to eat less, no matter how much he nagged her to eat more. It was time to do something. If this continued she just might lose her fight and he would not let that happen.

He made his way to the elevator and demanded that the electronic person take him to wherever Clint was. The elevator stopped on the common floor so Jaken was grateful for that. With his luck he might have been out again. A few weeks ago, he had left for a few days, saying he had a mission to go on. Jaken was suspicious as the red head didn't go with him. From what he gathered they usually did missions together. But that was human business and didn't concern him. Right now, he just needed that human to actually do something for once. He saw the whole group sitting around the TV watching one thing or another.

"Human!" he barked out, glaring right at Clint.

Everyone gave a sigh as they heard the green imp. The thing was really annoying and none of them knew how Kagome dealt with him all day without killing him. They were pretty lucky as he usually stayed down on Clint and Natasha's floor with Kagome. Even when Kagome came upstairs he would stay down on that floor, only coming up to give Kagome some food or something. Every time they had to deal with him in the past month they had ended up wanted to bash the loud-mouthed demon who didn't seem to posses a filter on his mouth. They looked over to him and saw he was looking at Clint and he sighed his misfortune. Why couldn't the demon have been looking at Tony?

"What do you want Jaken?" Clint asked calmly. No need to start this conversation off on a bad note, though it would probably end on one.

"It is time you stepped up and do something."

Clint raised an eyebrow, "And what am I supposed to be doing?"

"She has started eating less and you need to intervene. She is starting to lose her battle." Jaken said. They were all surprised at the slightly worried look that formed on his face. They hadn't seen anything other than annoyed or angry the past month.

Tony frowned, "What do you mean she's losing?"

Jaken looked at all of them with slightly wide eyes. She hadn't told them? "You don't know?"

"Know what demon?" Natasha asked harshly. Natasha and Jaken did not like each other. They had gotten into a very large disagreement the third day he was here and they tended to tray and avoid each other if possible.

Jaken let out a huff, humans were so ignorant. If he wasn't here Kagome probably would be dead by now. Honestly, he wished Inukimi would just come out of hiding and take both of them up to her castle. He guessed that the cats could come as well, the Miko seemed to like them for some reason. But, he guessed that she liked these humans as well.

"Jaken, what is going on?" Steve asked in a voice that demanded an answer. It was his Captain America voice, which meant he meant business.

Jaken growled, annoyed that he was going to have to explain things to humans, "Listen mates aren't meant to be apart from each other. It's not usually that dire of a problem as mates can usually be apart up to a month before starting to feel the strain of their other's absence. That is only if they part willingly. The Miko and Lord Sesshomaru did not part on their own terms, so the strain started after a few days instead of a month. Mi Lord lasted a few days past a month before losing the battle to his beast and Inukimi was forced to trap him. The Miko is going on two months, which is impressive especially for a human. I think she is fighting for her baby's sake only, but she can only fight it for so long. Her mind is already starting to shut down, the proof is her not eating all of her food. The death of so many loved ones doesn't help her mental health either. Also, the fact that we have made no progress in finding anyone doesn't help. She's starting to lose hope and in her circumstance that could very well be deadly. You Clint and the red head are part of her pack, she's adopted you into her little family. If anyone is able to snap her out of this and keep her fighting for a bit longer it's you two."

They hadn't made any progress which was frustrating everyone. Tony had gotten a picture of Koga from Kagome's scrapbook and had constantly been running a face search for the man. Not a single hit had shown up as of yet. Either the man stayed inside all day where there were no cameras to hack, or he was in the middle of a forest or something similar. Jaken had been looking for hints on where Inukimi's floating castle was, but apparently, she had gone into hiding the moment she kicked Jaken out. No word had been found on Naraku or any of his evil little helpers, so they were no closer to finding Sota or Shippo. They also had no clues on where Inukimi had hidden her barrier so looking for Sesshomaru and Rin was a dead end as well. They were all understandably frustrated, but they hadn't realized just how much of a hit it was taking on Kagome.

Determination filled Clint's eyes, it was time, "Nat go get out bags. Jaken go pack a bag for Kagome that will last her a week. We're going on a little vacation. Hopefully a change of scenery will help her."

Natasha nodded immediately, knowing exactly where Clint was planning on taking Kagome. She stood up and made her way towards the elevator, "Come on demon, we are leaving as soon as possible."

Tony stood up, a panic in his eyes, "I'm coming too." He had thought she was fine. Depressed from everything that happened, but fine. What kind of crappy father was he turning out to be? He had his daughter in his house for a whole month and she was already giving up on life apparently. He hadn't noticed at all! He had been a little worried when she had stopped coming up during the day, but she had given the excuse that she was tired and just wanted some quiet. How gullible was he? Tony was completely beating himself up over the situation.

"Sorry Tony you can't come. The place we are going is a classified location, not even Shield knows about it. But it's surrounded by nature and hopefully that change of scenery will help her out a bit." Clint realized Tony was still going to argue about his coming along, "Tony I will pin you to the wall with arrows if you follow. Seriously I can't let anyone know about this place." He felt bad, the man just learned very bad news about his daughter. He couldn't let Tony or anyone else find out about his home though. He had people to protect, and Kagome was one of them damnit. "Look Tony I'll keep you updated on her condition at the end of every day, but you can't come along."

Tony let out a reluctant sigh of defeat, then an idea blossomed in his mind, "Do you really think that some nature will help her?"

"I don't know for sure. What I do know is that she spent the last four years in a place where there was nothing but nature. Maybe if she was around something that reminded her of her time in the past, with him, will help her mind keep fighting. I'll be damned if I let her lose this battle."

Tony nodded at his logic, "Right. Well get going birdbrain, I'll be waiting for those updates." He then walked away quickly, ignoring the want to sneak onto the quinjet that Clint was obviously going to borrow. He pulled out his phone and dialed Pepper, she answered on the third ring, "Hey Pep, how difficult would it be to build a greenhouse on the roof in a week?"

Kagome was sitting on a recliner that she had gotten for her room. Buyo was sleeping on the cat condo that Pepper had gotten for him. Kirara was curled on a pillow next to her. On her lap was her scrapbook, she was turned to a page that had a picture of her family on it. Miroku must have stolen her camera to take the picture. She remembered being surprised when she had developed these pictures and finding that one. Sesshomaru was sitting on the bank of a river watching over his family. Kagome was playing in the water with her two kids. She remembered that day. It had been really hot that day so they had decided to take a break from traveling and spend the day by a river. Miroku had taken the picture right as Kagome, Shippo, and Rin teamed up against Sesshomaru as they decided to splash water at the Daiyoukai who had refused to get into the water with them. Sesshomaru had a smirk on his face as he knew he was going to be able to avoid the incoming wave. The three in the water had huge smiles on their faces, Kagome had been laughing with joy.

A frown came over her face, she missed those days and wanted them back more desperately that anything she could remember. She knew she was starting to lose focus more, case in point she was pretty sure she had been staring at this picture for more than an hour. She was doing her best to keep fighting the urge to simply give up but giving up was sounding better and better by the day. She had no idea how Sesshomaru had lasted a month before giving into his beast. It was slightly easier for her as she didn't have a beast in her mind screaming at her that everything was wrong all the time. She also had a little bit of Sesshomaru inside of her to keep her moving. She was absolutely sure that she was going to make it to the birth of her child, not doing so wasn't even an option. She would give her child life if it was the last thing she did. Which at this point was the problem. With how quickly her mind liked to shut down or go into full on panic mode, she wasn't sure if she was going to survive the birthing process. She didn't want to do that to her baby however. She didn't want to leave her baby with no parents to look after them.

Kagome looked up with a start as her bedroom door slammed open. She turned to see Jaken come into her room, he didn't even look at her as he made his way into her closet. She watched him slightly confused as he came out with a small suitcase. Her confusion grew as he started shoving some of her clothes into her bag. What was going on? She was about to voice her question when Clint poked his head into her room.

"Hey Gome, how are you doing? I heard that you didn't eat all of your lunch, you feeling okay?"

Kagome frowned slightly, "I just wasn't very hungry. What's going on Cint?"

Clint rolled his eyes, of course Jaken wouldn't explain anything to her. He was leaving it up to him, "We are going somewhere for the week. I figured you could use a change of scenery. It's got to be boring to be in the same set of rooms all the time. So; you, Natasha, Jaken, Kirara, and myself are going somewhere."

"Where are we going?" she didn't really want to go anywhere. She refused to go outside as she could sense demons all over the city and she didn't want to risk anything. Demons now a day could probably kill her and make it look like a mugging gone wrong and she wasn't risking her baby like that. They also hadn't heard any movement from Naraku at all, she was assuming that he was learning all he could about the time period he was now in. Naraku didn't like being ignorant about something, that was for sure. She wasn't sure how long he planned on being idle however and she didn't want to be somewhere there could be collateral damage if he decided to start attacking once again.

He gave her a patient smile, he knew her concerns. He knew exactly why she hadn't gone outside once since getting here. Well that, plus it would be bad if the press found out about her. She was very visibly pregnant and would be for another five months. They couldn't let the press find out about her as they would know immediately that something was up and that would just be a nightmare. "We are going to the farm Gome."

Kagome's eye went wide with shock and excitement, "Really?" Clint had talked about his home before, always calling it the farm. She knew that Clint had a wife and two kids, a boy and a girl. She also knew however that Clint never brought anyone to the farm. The less people that knew about it the less of a chance that his family could get hurt.

"Yup. I talked to Laura last time I went over and she really wants to meet you. Her exact words were, 'I need to meet the girl that caught your attention just as Natasha did.' I told her that I would bring you along next time. I wasn't going to go back until next week, but hey now works to. I love going home to see my family, and you are part of that family now Gome."

A blush spread across Kagome's face, and tears started forming in her eyes. She wasn't sad, not at all in this moment. Clint had just made her happier than she had been since getting rescued from the mental hospital. She took one last look of the picture she had been staring at before shutting the book and placing it carefully on her desk. She turned to look at Buyo, she would have to have one of the others watch him for the week. She knew Kirara would stick close to her, but she didn't feel like accidently losing Buyo as he tended to wander.

Kagome stood up and wiped the tears away, her other hand resting on her stomach. To reassure herself that her baby was still fine, she needed to do that a lot. It was a constant worry in the back of her mind that something would happen. Most of the time she had a hand on her stomach, just rubbing the bump that held her little baby. "Jaken please pack my scrapbook as well." She didn't want that too far away from her. Sometimes when her mind really started to wander, or she felt super depressed she would look through her scrapbook. The pictures of her friends and family always seemed to settle her soul a bit.

Jaken grunted, showing that he heard her, as he continued to pack her bag. He was packing some of his things as well as the Neko's in the bag as well. He really hoped that this trip was what the Miko needed. He just needed to keep her going until they make progress on one of their missions.

Kagome let Jaken continue packing her bag as she made her way to Buyo. Kirara hopped onto the bed to overlook Jaken's packing, she knew Kagome would be back soon and she wanted to make sure that the imp packed everything that he should. Kagome picked up her fat cat and made her way to the doorway. Clint looked down at her, a smile on his face, as he moved out of her way. She still cared even when fighting for her mental health. Most people in her place probably would have forgotten about the cat, not Kagome though.

"Why don't you wait for me up on the common floor. I'll bring everything up, the quinjet is parked above us anyway." Clint told her.

Kagome nodded to him and started walking down the hall. She had only walked a few feet before she turned around, "Hey Clint don't let Jaken to pack my bow. There could be low level demons around and I don't want your family to get hurt."

"I'll make sure to grab it. Now go take care of your cat." Clint smiled at her before moving down the hall to his room to pack his own bag. He didn't need to pack much as pretty much anything he needed was at his house.

Kagome made her way to the elevator and it opened for her, Kagome smiled slightly, "Thank you Jarvis. Could you bring me up to the commons please?"

"Not a problem Miss Kagome. I wish you well on your trip." He informed her.

Kagome smiled at the camera. Jarvis really was a sweetheart. She knew he had been helping Jaken look after her the past month. She started petting Buyo and the cat started purring up a storm. She knew exactly who she was going to ask to watch Buyo. Buyo had taken a liking to Bruce. When he wasn't chilling in her room with her, he was sneaking into Bruce's lab to spend time with him. She had no idea how Buyo got off their floor, let alone into Bruce's lab which was a secure area. All she knew was if Buyo wanted to get somewhere, he was getting in there. The elevator doors opened up and she walked into the common area's living room. She saw Steve and Bruce talking quietly to each other. She wasn't sure where Tony was, he tended to disappear a lot. She made her way over to them, making enough noise to let them know she was there. She didn't like interrupting people's conversations and for all she knew what they were talking about wasn't something that she shouldn't hear.

Steve turned and smiled at the girl that was standing there, looking sorry for interrupting them. Not that they were talking about something important, mainly about how to deal with Tony the coming week. "Hey Kagome. Good to see you out."

Kagome gave a tiny smile, "Thanks. I'm sorry to worry everyone." She turned to look at Bruce, "Um, Bruce? Do you think you could look after Buyo this week? I can't take him along where I'm going."

Bruce looked at her with wide eyes, "I… I don't know Kagome. I don't think I'm really the person who should watch him."

Kagome looked at him sincerely, "Nonsense Bruce. Buyo likes you the best after myself here. I would really appreciate it if you would look after him for me."

Bruce looked like he was going to argue more but Steve elbowed him in the side to stop him. This was the first time she had come to them for something. Anything she had needed in the past month she depended on Jaken, Jarvis, or Natasha.

Bruce looked flustered, but he nodded and moved to take Buyo from her, "Sure. I'll watch him."

Kagome smiled at him, "Thank you Bruce. He shouldn't be much trouble, he sleeps most of the day. If you need any help Jarvis knows what he needs and where all of his things are."

"Well, I'll do my best." He assured her.

Kagome sat down and started chatting with Steve and Bruce. Kagome felt herself lighten a bit, this was the most she had socialized in the past week. Isolating herself was a stupid move on her part, though it had seemed like what she wanted at the time. The boys started talking about Thor and how he should finally be getting back in the next few days. He was supposed to come back a few weeks ago, but he had gotten held up with his girlfriend. Apparently, she was close to a breakthrough and she wanted Thor to stick around and help her. Which the god had agreed to. When Thor came back he was bringing both Jane and Darcy back with him. Tony had finally bribed Jane enough to come and work with him in the tower. Though she probably finally gave in to be closer to Thor, not that Kagome blamed her. She would give anything to be closer to the ones that she loved.

A few minutes later Clint, Natasha, and Jaken walked into the room. Natasha was carrying her own bag while Clint was holding Kagome's and his own. Jaken had his staff clutched tightly in his hands, it looked like Clint had wanted him to keep it here. Jaken would not go for that. Natasha had Kagome's bow slung over her shoulder and Kirara was sitting comfortably on her head. The moment Kirara saw Kagome she jumped to Natasha's shoulder before leaping to Kagome. Kagome caught the flying Neko and transferred her to her shoulder. Kirara settled down in the crook of her neck and started purring calmly. Kagome smiled and rubbed Kirara's nose lightly.

"Ready to go Gome?" Clint asked.

Kagome nodded and made her way over to her little traveling group, waving goodbye to Steve and Bruce, "Tell Tony I said goodbye." She called out to them before following Natasha into the elevator. A short ride later they arrived to the level the quinjet was parked on. It was on the most top floor, just under the roof. They loaded into the jet, Clint making his way to the driver's seat so they could get going right away. Natasha made sure Kagome was comfortable where she was as she started getting ready for the flight.

They made it up into the air and were off on a brisk pace for a good twenty minutes before Clint set autopilot on and going back by the girls and Jaken. The moment he laid his eyes on Jaken he glared at him and got his attention, using the most serious tone he had available he warned the imp, "The place we are going is very important to me. It is a very well-kept secret and the only people who know about it are on this plane, and Director Fury. I will tell you this only once imp. You will keep this location to yourself, you will not tell anyone about where we are going and what is there. If you cannot comply with that I will open up the hatch right now and toss your ass off of this plane. Understand?"

Jaken paled slightly. This human was usually useless and joked around all the time. He had never seen him so serious and threatening before. The most put together he had seen him was when he was helping out the Miko, usually holding back her hair when she was sick in the morning. Thankfully she only had around one more month of morning sickness, that should relieve some of the stress she has been feeling. He looked right at the human and gave him a nod, if what he suspected was right they were going to see the human's family which he protected with a passion, "I give you my word."

Kagome looked at him with wide eyes before a smile appeared, "He means it Clint. He doesn't give his word lightly. He will literally die before telling your secret. Most demons are true to their word. Demons that break their word are no longer trusted and if Jaken broke his word it would reflect poorly on Sesshomaru, which is something Jaken would never do."

Clint sighed before accepting the demon's word. If Kagome trusted him, then he would have to as well. He was taking a risk bringing the imp along as well, but he knew that the demon was not letting Kagome out of his sight for long. Jaken felt he was responsible for her and he took his responsibilities very seriously.

Clint decided to lighten the mood as he pulled out a pack of cards, "Who wants to play some poker?"

Natasha grinned at him ferally, "I never play for fun Barton, you know that."

Clint accepted her challenge, "It's my turn to win Romanov."

Kagome blushed, "I um… don't have anything to bet with."

"Use Stark's money." Both Natasha and Clint said at the same time.

A grin started forming on Kagome's face, "Well then, who's dealing first?" She knew they would underestimate her, but unknown to them her mother was actually a very big poker fan. She never gambled, always playing for fun, but she had taught her daughter the ins and outs of the game. These two were going down.


	10. The Farm

Even as Clint landed the quinjet in the field next to his farm he looked at Kagome in slight shock. He had been excited when Kagome had agreed to play poker with them. He hadn't been sure if she even knew how to play and how bad Natasha would wipe her out. Kagome has quickly reassured them that she did indeed know how to play and not to worry about her. The game itself went on for nearly the entire trip, so almost four hours. Clint tapped himself out after the first hour a half when the bets started getting a bit too high for him to keep going. The last of the game was an intense battle between his two girls fighting to keep the lead. Clint had become the dealer, and silencer of Jaken when he got too annoying. Natasha hadn't been kidding when she said she didn't play for fun. They both kept adding more money into the game up until the point Clint had cut them off, telling them to simply play with what they had. They had been getting close to the farm and someone had to admit defeat at that point. In the end it was surprisingly been Nat who ran out of money to bet with first. Kagome had a few good bluffs and lucky hands toward the end that helped her win. The soon to be mother was now 15,000 dollars richer. Clint knew that she would save the money for when she needed to start buying things for her kid as that was one thing she wouldn't accept help from Stark with. Clint had been a bit pouty at having to leave the game at first, but in the end, he couldn't make himself care too much. During the poker game Kagome had been more active and happy than she had been in weeks.

Nat playfully glared at Kagome as they touched down, "I will be getting a re-match soon sestra, one that doesn't have a time limit."

Kagome grinned at her, "Whenever you want Tasha." It had felt really good to play the game she had played with her mother all of the time. Having Sesshomaru's icy stare to work off of helped as well. Half of the time Nat didn't know if she had a good hand or not as her face had been completely blank.

Clint shut the jet down, making sure the cloaking feature was still on before walking away from the controls. He made his way over to Kagome, throwing her bag at the imp to carry, "Welcome to my home Gome." He heard Jaken squawk as he caught the bag and he hid a grin, his kids were going to have a field day with him.

Kagome smiled at him nervously, "Thanks for trusting me enough to bring me here Clint."

Clint grinned down at her and mussed up her hair. He laughed as she batted his hand away, "How did you put it? We are pack, which makes up family."

Kagome sent him a silent smile as he led her off the plane. As they walked down the ramp her eyes went wide and a grin spread across her face. The house was a nice and simply two-storied farm house. Though she was sure there were booby traps and safe rooms everywhere just in case. There was a large barn off to the side and a small chicken coop where she could hear the clucking of said chickens. All of that wasn't what made her smile though. No, completely surrounding the farm for what seemed like miles was forests. Trees circled the farm, making the air clean and easy to breath. She hadn't realized she had missed nature until that moment. There were no plants inside of the tower and it wasn't like she could go outside. For one it was too dangerous right now, and secondly it wasn't like there was much nature around in New York besides Central Park. Kagome stopped for a moment to simply take it all in. She hadn't really thought about it since moving into the tower, but the lack of nature had been bugging her. For the past four years she had been surrounded by nothing but nature for the most part. Sure, there had been the times she had gone back home, but those had usually been brief. Especially the last two years. Even in the larger villages in the feudal era they had been able to see trees no matter what direction they looked.

After a minute of simply breathing in the clean environment she turned to Clint, "Your home is amazing Clint. Where are we?"

Clint shrugged as he started leading her towards the front door once again, "The middle of nowhere Iowa. I own the land around the house for five miles in every direction. So, there is nobody nearby to worry about."

"There are multiple escape routes set in place if they ever become necessary. Plenty of warning triggers all over as well." The red-haired assassin said as they walked up the front steps.

Kagome's mind settled a bit, that meant she was completely safe out here. All she had to worry about was lower level demons living in the woods around the farm and she doubted there would me many around. Or at least she hoped there weren't many. When Clint had announced they were only a few minutes from landing she had silently set up two small barriers; one around her powers, and a slightly more powerful one around the jewel. If she used any of her Ki they would break immediately as she set them up with no prep and quickly, but only higher-level demons should be able to sense her with the barriers in place. And that was only if they were close to her. She did not want anything malicious to sense where she was and come after her. She would not bring harm to Clint's family.

Clint, unaware of Kagome's silent determination, opened up the front door and called out, "Laura, honey, you in?"

Jaken dropped the bag on the floor inside the door and watched Barton move further into the house, calling for his wife. Romanov took her bag and disappeared up the stairs. The Miko simply stood still looking at her surroundings. The Neko was curled in the crook of the Miko's neck, keeping a silent watch. Even Jaken had to admit that there was a huge difference between this house and Barton's floor at the tower. This place was well decorated and felt very homey and lived in. The rooms at the tower were just a place to sleep it seemed like.

He had noticed the moment the Miko had set up the barriers. He quietly got the Miko's attention and as she looked down at him he gave her a serious look, "Are you going to be able to safely keep up those barriers while we are here?"

Kagome looked started for a moment before she realized that of course he would notice the call of the Shikon suddenly disappearing. Jaken had no desire to actually use the Shikon, but even those that didn't want to use it would still feel the call of it, "Yes I'll be fine. It's not like I plan on using any of my Ki while I'm here so I won't be straining myself. I refuse to bring trouble to Clint's front door."

Jaken scowled at her stupid sense of humanity before saying, "If you feel any strain at all I expect you to drop the barriers at once. I have my staff with me and I shall defeat anything that come for you Miko. Plus, those two human's you've claimed as pack can hold their own as well." Jaken knew from all of the research Inukimi made him do throughout the years that when Miko's became pregnant their Ki started becoming hard for them to call up on in their later months. Kagome's situation was slightly different as she was pregnant with a youkai and would be carrying longer. He didn't doubt that she wouldn't be able to access any of her Ki in the last month of her pregnancy, though he hadn't told her that yet. There had never been a documented case of a Miko baring the child of a youkai. That meant he had no idea if the two opposite Ki's would react if she kept attempting to use too much of her own Ki. He didn't want the battle between the two Ki's to affect the Miko's health.

Kagome was silent for a moment before nodding, "I give you my word." She had seen the serious and worried look on Jaken's face, "They are only barriers though, the hardest part was putting them up. It only takes a tiny part of my Ki to keep them going. I had stronger ones up for three weeks straight last time and I was fine."

Jaken frowned, "That was a month ago already Miko. You have gotten further into your pregnancy which will make it harder for you to control your Ki. Plus, there was a large kick back when you finally released your barriers last time. You were lucky you were high enough up and no demons were close enough to sense it." Either that or any demons nearby simply decided to stay away for their own safety.

Kagome sighed as she started moving deeper into the house where Clint had gone to, "It's only for a week Jaken, I'll be fine. As promised I will drop them if I start feeling drained keeping them up. But, for now just keep it to yourself. No need to worry Clint and Tasha over nothing." She said as she entered the room she had seen Clint disappear into.

As she turned the corner she saw Clint kissing a pretty brown-haired woman. They broke apart and Clint to introduce her, "Laura this is my little sister Kagome. Kagome this is my wife Laura."

Laura smiled as she moved forward to pull Kagome into a hug, "It's nice to meet you. I've heard so much about you these past four years. I've been looking forward to finally meeting to girl behind all the stories."

Kagome smiled when Clint introduced her as his sister, it made her feel like she still had a little bit of family left. Even if they weren't actually related. As Laura stepped back from the hug Kagome gave her a smile, "It's nice to meet you as well. Clint always talks so fondly about his family."

Laura sent Clint a playful look, "Well I should hope so. I would have to teach him some manners if he was talking bad about me behind my back."

Clint held up his arms, "I wouldn't dare Love. What's bad that I could possibly talk about?"

Laura giggled, "Suck up."

Clint grinned, "To my dying breath Honey."

Laura looked from Kagome to Clint, a secret grin on her face, "Shall we tell her the good news?"

"Of course." Clint said happily before pulling his wife into a hug, his arms wrapping around her stomach as he looked at Kagome, "Laura's pregnant again! I'm going to be a dad for the third time."

Kagome smiled happily back at them, "Congrats to both of you." She turned her attention directly to Laura, "You'll have to give me some tips while I'm here. While I have two kids I adopted them when they were at least eight years old. It'll be completely new raising one from birth"

"I would be happy to. I know a great place just within the woods that is great for a picnic. We'll have to sneak away just the two of us sometime this week and have a mom to mom talk." Laura told her sincerely.

"If it's a girl is she going to be Natasha?" Nat joked as she appeared from nowhere.

"She just might be, Tasha." Laura said startling Nat a bit as she moved to hug the red-head. "It's good to see you again Nat."

"Where are the kids?" Clint asked. He knew they were excited to see and terrorize their first demon.

"Oh, they went out to play in the woods a little while ago. They should be back soon. They probably heard the jet land, plus it's almost lunch. They are probably on their way back now." She told her husband, "Why don't you go collect the two munchkins and I'll settle Kagome down in a room." She glanced down at the imp and gave him a small smile, "Along with her friend." She knew Clint had said that when he brought Kagome that a demon would be coming as well. The actual sight of him was a bit much to take in though. He looked like an oversized walking toad wearing clothes. It would definitely take some getting used to.

"Sure Hon, be back in a sec." Clint said as he headed out the back door.

"Come with me. There is a room right next to Nat's you can use while you are here. It's not super big, but is should be big enough for you and your friend." She explained. Clint had told her that Jaken wouldn't want to be separated from Kagome so she had set up a bunch of blankets in one corner of the room for him to use as a bed.

Kagome gave her thankful smile, "Anything will work for me, honest. I've gotten used to a sleeping bag on the ground. Any bed is a luxury. Jaken will be fine with anything as well." She sent a glare down to the imp that was about to start shooting off complaints he didn't actually mean, "He should be grateful he even has a place to stay."

Jaken shut his mouth with a snap, glaring at the floor as he dragged their bag behind him. He pushed the bag into the corner where he assumed he was sleeping and pouted silently before mumbling out, "This place is better than the tower I guess. Less gagingly human."

Kagome let out a sigh, "I'll apologize in advance right now if he says anything rude this week. He doesn't exactly have a filter between his brain and his mouth."

Laura laughed, a hand going op to cover her mouth, "I can just ignore it if it's too bad. With being married to Clint I've tome to learn how to listen selectively. He tends to ramble, especially if he's tired."

Kagome barked out a laugh, "I'm sure it is a good skill to have."

Laura nodded, "I'll leave you two to settle in. I have to head down and finish up lunch. Come on down when you have what you want out unpacked."

"Thanks Laura." Kagome called after her as she made her way back downstairs. She turned over to Jaken as he opened up the bag. Kagome immediately pulled out her scrapbook searching for a specific photo. She pulled one out; a picture of Kagome holding onto Rin, Rin was hugging her neck and smiling at the photo. Shippo was clinging onto Kagome's shoulder and was smiling over to Rin. Sesshomaru stood right behind Kagome not looking at the camera but down at Kagome, the barest smile tilting his lips. Kagome was grinning up at Sesshomaru; they had just found out she was pregnant and Shippo had demanded a family photo, even if the newest member of the family wasn't even visible yet. She wanted to show Laura the photo, somehow it felt like the thing she should do at the moment. She looked down at Jaken who was still digging through the bag, probably looking for a specific thing.

"I'm heading downstairs Jaken. Take your time with whatever your doing, I have Kirara with me." Kagome said before heading downstairs to show Laura her family.


	11. Interlude

Sota let out a groan as he hit the dirty floor. As he laid there he heard the door slam shut and lock. He laid there completely still he started gaining control over his own mind once again. Sometimes it too no time at all and sometimes it took up to an hour. As the fog lifted from his mind he thought about what had happened the past two months. He always went over it every couple days so he didn't forget anything. He didn't want to take the easy way out and simply forget everything that happened. That isn't what Kagome would do and he planned on staying strong for the sake of his sister. Everything started with hearing his sister's anguished sobs coming from the wellhouse. He remembered all too clearly the look of absolute horror as the bastard demon shoved the jewel shard that now controlled him into his chest. It currently resided right below his right shoulder. Outwardly he hadn't shown anything at the time, but he had been terrified when he had the piece of wood to his own throat. He had been absolutely terrified for his sister, his very pregnant sister, as Naraku sent her flying across the shrine. He had been terrified as he tried to fight his own body as he allowed his sister's enemy to fly off with him. While under Naraku's control he could see and recognize everything, he just couldn't stop himself no matter how hard he fought. The corruption of the jewel shard was too powerful for him to fight.

They had flown for a while, and if it hadn't been such a terrible situation it probably would have been amazing. He had always wanted to fly. Naraku had taken in everything around him with a maniac glee. Terror filled Sota's mind once again, he had no idea what Naraku had planned for the future. Sota answered any questions the man asked, no matter how much he didn't want to. Naraku had been very interested in the fact that there was more to conquer than just Japan. Surprisingly Naraku had had a set destination in mind. Within an hour they got to a set of small mountains. Sota watched with wide eyes as they passed through what had to be a barrier. As one moment there were just mountains and the next there was an old castle. Sota figured he must have put the base under a protective barrier before he started his assault on his sister's group.

He was led to a room on the top floor and promptly shoved into it. His mind had come back to him in an instant and he immediately threw up. He had just watched his mother and grandpa get murdered in front of him. He knew that his sister was alive, but he didn't know how hurt she was. Before he could do anything, he had heard a small cry before someone collided into him. He had looked to see who was going to be stuck in here with him. It was a small kid, he couldn't have been more than eight. He had fiery orange hair tied back with a green ribbon. His clothes were really old fashioned, but of nice quality. There was a small bleeding gash on his forehead. As he saw the fox tail twitch into view he immediately who it was. He vaguely realized that the boy's feet were fox paws. This boy was his sister's adopted son, his nephew. Sota's protectiveness kicked in and he immediately put himself between his nephew and Naraku, even if it would do little good.

Naraku chuckled, "A nice sentiment, but unneeded I assure you. You both will be great ways to break the Miko's will. Your deaths would not benefit me, not as of yet anyhow. I will be back for you at a later date pawn. There is much to learn about this time." As Naraku had left he locked the door behind him.

Shippo looked at the boy who had jumped between him and Naraku. He smelled like his mother slightly. Naraku had made him watch the deaths of his family. After he went through the well after his mother he hadn't been able to see anything anymore. With a start of realization, he realized that the boy must be his mother's younger brother. She talked about him constantly and he had always wanted to meet him. Was he finally being able to meet his uncle? "Who are you?" he asked just to confirm his suspicions.

Sota gave the kid a sad smile as he wiped his mouth, "My name is Sota Higurashi. If you are who I think you are I'm your uncle. You are Shippo right?"

Shippo gave a small nod and smiled slightly, though sadness was very evident on his face, "Yeah, it's nice to finally meet you. Mama talks about you all the time, how she's always really proud of you. I wish it was under better circumstances though."

Sota gave a sad sigh, "Shippo do you know what happened? Kagome came back sobbing. I had never seen her so despondent before."

Shippo nodded as he sniffed quietly, "Yeah." He said sadly as the memories of what had happened came back to him. Shippo explained what all happened and Sota's heart broke for his sister. He was really worried about her. his sister was a beam of light. She loved with everything she ad. What would become of his sister after she lost most of the people she loved?

The next two months passed in a sort of rhythm. Naraku would come in the morning and take control of him and force him to learn how to fight. If he wasn't learning to be used against his sister he would have enjoyed learning how to fight. He had always tried to convince Kagome to teach him how to fight, but she had never stayed long enough to help. He couldn't wait until he broke from Naraku's grasp and use everything he had learned against him. He couldn't wait to destroy Naraku.

When he was locked up in the room with Shippo they would talk and get to know each other. He now knew why Kagome fell in love with the kid so quickly; he was an optimistic, funny, and charming boy. Sota was doing his best to teach Shippo about the future. With lack of better things to do at times Sota was teaching him how to speak English. It was slow going but he was starting to remember certain words. When Sota was being trained Shippo worked on his magic as much as he could. He was getting really good at transforming himself. He couldn't' make his fox tail disappear yet, but he was learning how to hid it in different ways. Like a long coat or something similar.

Sota hadn't been sent out on any missions yet. He had a feeling it wouldn't be too long before he was assigned to do something. It was hard to tell but Naraku was very irritated about something. He had overheard Naraku ranting to Kanna about how they had lost track of Kagome. He had had one of his spy bugs watching her. She had apparently been at a mental hospital for quite a while, but she had somehow escaped and snuck passed the giant bee. Sota mentally cheered, Go Kagome!

Sota finally felt in full control of his body again and rolled over to see Shippo's worried face, "You alright?"

"I'm fine Ship, just all my muscles hurt. So, no different than usual. They were a lot harder than usual today though. Something is going to happen soon, I can tell. We need to think of a plan. If I get sent out there is a chance I can get a message out for help. I saw Naraku gathering intel on the Avengers. I don't know if he's going to go after them or if he's just researching possible threats. If anyone could help us though, it would be them." Shippo nodded, but otherwise stayed quiet. Sota frowned, he wasn't usually this quiet, "Is everything alright Ship?"

Shippo's lip quivered as he said, "I miss Mama."

Sota fell silent for a moment before saying, "Yeah, I miss Kagome too." Don't get him wrong he missed his mom too, but he knew very well that his mom was dead now. Kagome was literally all he had left and he honestly loved his sister. Kagome had helped raised him. Whenever he needed help or friendship it was usually Kagome he went to. Thinking back, he went to Kagome much more than his mom, she was just so easy to approach and so eager to help.

Sota mentally shook himself and tried to lighten the mood, "Hey should we work on your foxfire today?"

A grin came over his face, "Yeah!"

* * *

Hakudoshi was very annoyed as he sat upon Entei. He had been searching for his master's mate for close to a whole moon cycle in this odd world. He didn't like this place. He had been shocked when he had escaped out of the cave he had been sealed within to see what had transpired. Demons were in hiding with humans in abundance everywhere. Most of the trees had been destroyed and replaced with tall building and many roads. The air was disgusting to breath.

He had found the Miko's home without much trouble, making sure he could remember how to get back to the cave from there. Her home was in the same spot as the well from the past, though for some reason it didn't seem to exist anymore. He kept out of sight of the humans as much as she could after the first interaction he had with him. They had fawned all over him for is appearance. It had taken everything ounce of his control to not to gut the humans as it would bring attention to him. He reminded himself this was for his Master's sake and held himself back. He stuck to shadows and rooftops after that. From listening to the human's conversations, he learned that the Miko had been taken by people called the police. He had to reveal himself once again and forced himself to act like a human child. He found the location of these police people. The directions didn't mean much to him but upon further investigation they were names of the streets and was able to make it to his destination.

He had retreated back to the demolished shrine to wait until nightfall, there were less humans out at night. He rested upon the roof as night fell, he was highly disappointed that he was unable to stargaze at night here. Stargazing had been one thing he actually enjoyed in his short life. He would sometimes bring Kanna along with him and they would sit companionly under the night sky while Kagura distracted Naraku so he wouldn't notice their absence.

He had traversed over the rooftops, following the street names the humans had given him. He had noticed a human leaving the building and followed him over the rooftops. Once the man walked to an area there were no others nearby Hakudoshi intercepted him.

The police officer rounded the corner on his way home and nearly ran into the child standing in the middle of the alley way. He was a very odd-looking child. He had long thick pure white hair. His eyes were cold purple and practically glowing. He was wearing a pure white hakama that was very old fashioned, it had blue and yellow buttons as decoration.

"Hello there son, what are you doing out so late?" the officer said friendly.

"You shall tell me the fate of one Kagome Higurashi. I have information stating you people are knowledgeable of her whereabouts." Hakudoshi said in a calm tone.

The officer narrowed his eyes slightly, "Why do you want to know?" While it was an ongoing investigation it wasn't classified or anything. From what he knew she was able to get visitors where she was.

"That is none of your business human, just tell me her location and I shall spare your life." Hakudoshi threatened.

"Now listen here kid, that is not how you talk to people. I know you're young but you could get in serious trouble for threatening a cop like that." The cop lectured seriously.

Hakudoshi tilted his head slightly and a dangerous smirk spread across his face, "Oh that was no threat, that was simply a statement. I can threaten you if you would like."

The cop got mad at that point, "Now listen here kid!" he started.

Hakudoshi pulled his Naginata from the barrier hiding it and, in an instant, had it at the man's throat. The man stopped talking immediately and his eyes darted to the weapon he could feel touching his throat. He had no idea where it came from, or how the kid was wielding it so well as it was much longer than him. Hakudoshi scowled at the man, "Now this is a threat. You will tell me where Kagome Higurashi is, or I will simply read your mind before decapitating you. Make your choice human."

The cop couldn't completely understand what was happening. He was being threatened by a child and he could tell that the child was completely serious, "She got transferred to Tokyo Metropolitan Matsuzawa Hospital a month ago."

With a disgusted look on his face Hakudoshi reached forward and touched the man. The location of the hospital appeared in his head and he let go of him. He hated touching humans, they were all beneath him. Well except for his master's mate, she was tolerable. He wiped his hand on his pants before teleporting a short distance away. He made his way to the location and staked it out slightly. With a frown he recognized a Saimyosho buzzing around the place. He killed it with little trouble before turning his attention to the actual building. If a Saimyosho was lingering around then there was a very good chance that the Miko was here. He placed a barrier around himself before teleporting inside. He made sure to not make contact with anyone as he would stay invisible and searched the entire interior of the building. To his building annoyance she was nowhere. He could smell her slightly from a single room, but it was a few days old. He had missed her damnit. He was leaving the building when the police man he had threatened entered the building. He decided to stay and listen.

"Excuse me ma'am could I talk to the nurse in charge of Kagome Higurashi please." The man said.

The lady looked startled for a moment before responding, "Ah, you could Sir but… she was discharged about a week ago."

The man suddenly got an angry and confused look on his face, "On who's authority?"

The nurse's face turned red, "By the Avengers Sir. I overheard them saying they were taking her back to New York with them."

"Why were we not informed? There was a hostile party looking for her just an hour ago." He asked.

"I don't know Sir. I thought you would have been informed. Would you like me to page her nurse yet?"

"Yes, this needs to be discussed."

Hakudoshi quickly left, he had heard enough here. A frown appeared on his face, in the past few days he had done some research about the new world he was in. He had learned that he had been trapped within the barrier for 500 years and that there were many other lands than just Japan. He was going to have to make his way to America, and he had no idea how he was going to make it there. He couldn't teleport that far and he couldn't use any human means. There were things needed to use human means of transportation, not to mention money which he had none. A determined look came over his face, it was time to find Entei. It would probably take him a while, but it was the only way he would be able to cross the ocean. How annoying.


	12. Heading back to New York

Almost a week had passed since they made it to Barton's farm and Kagome's heart felt lighter than it had since she came back to the future. Coming here really was a good idea. She knew that they were heading back tomorrow morning so she planned on making the most of her last day here. She had cut herself off from all of her trouble while she was here, so she hoped when she got back that they would have something for her. Maybe knowing where Koga was, or news on where Naraku was or what he had planned. Honestly, she would settle for anything at this point.

She made her way into the kitchen intent on making some daifuku. She had promised the kids she would make them some if they distracted Jaken for an hour or more for her. The little imp had practically become her shadow the past three days and she NEEDED a break. Don't get her wrong she truly and honestly appreciated everything he was doing for her. Before coming here, he was the only thing keeping her afloat in her depression. It was his incentive that brought her here in the first place. But he had been driving her even more insane than she already was. So, Clint's two kids had kidnapped Jaken for a game of friendly tackle tag. She had felt slightly bad for the old toad, but at the same time it was satisfying to see him suffering as well. Since they had upheld their end of the bargain, she would fulfil hers. She was blissfully Jaken-less at the moment as he was still asleep. She had made sure to be extra quiet as she exited her room this morning. This had been the first time in a long while she had woken up early and rested. Usually if she was up early it was because of a nightmare. Kirara was curled up on the kitchen table, simply content in watching at the moment, the sneaky feline knew she would get samples of her cooking. She always did.

Kagome started softly humming a song her and her mother used to sing together when they cooked. She was actually feeling really good this morning, almost like her old self. It was the first time she felt like herself in a long time so she was reveling in the moment. She hadn't had a nightmare last night, which had been a first since getting out of the asylum. Her apatite was back as she was munching on some apple slices as she prepped her daifuku. She had sent Clint out to get all of the ingredients last night. She handed a few smaller slices of apples to Kirara so she had something to munch on as well. Another bonus was she hadn't had any morning sickness which had been a first since that particular symptom started. Kagome was really hoping that it was finally stopping.

As Kagome moved to the fridge to get some ingredients she paused slightly, a small smile overtaking her face. On the fridge was a copy of Kagome's feudal family. The same picture she had showed Laura a week ago. Laura had promptly made a copy of the picture and stuck it to the fridge with a magnet, right next to the pictures of the rest of her family.

" _There now we have the complete family on the fridge."_ Laura had stated proudly. That single statement had Kagome in tears, happy tears. Laura had laughed and pulled her into a hug. The next day the two women had spirited away to a quiet place and talked. They had left Clint in charge of his kids and Jaken for the day. Kagome had asked every possible question she could think of and Laura had patiently answered all of them. The two had instantly hit it off and in her mind, Kagome had already adopted the rest of Clint's family into her pack. After Kagome had exhausted her questions, they had simply talked getting to know each other.

Kagome had spent the rest of the week helping Laura cook, playing with the kids, and watching Clint work on his newest project. According to Laura he always had a new project, even though he always said each one would be his last. She had also spent many hours just being outside and enjoying nature. A happy smile stayed on her face as she started humming again. She was very content going through the familiar movements of making daifuku. Her and her mom used to make it together all of the time, it had actually been the first thing her mom taught her how to cook.

That was the scene Clint walked in on and it brought a genuine smile on his face. He had come to get himself a cup of coffee, but he was content to watch her a moment. He learned against the doorway and simply watched his sister hum happily as she moved about the kitchen. This was the calmest and most content he had seen her since their last catch up meeting. Which had been months ago at this point. After watching her almost dance around the kitchen for a few minutes he finally decided to announce his presence. He snuck up behind her and with a smirk on his face casually asked, "Need any help Gome?"

Kagome let out an 'eep' as she spun around, brandishing her spatula as a weapon. Once she realized who it was a resigned sigh came from her and she went back to stirring.

"Your definition of helping is simply eating everything in sight." She answered with a huff and a roll of her eyes. She skootched the bowl out of his reach and slapped his hand, "No keep your fingers away." She scolded.

Clint pouted but plopped down onto a kitchen chair as he watched his sister continue her work. He reached over and started petting Kirara. He smiled as she started purring, moving from petting her ear to her belly as she rolled over. Maybe he should get a pet again. He hadn't had the heart to get a new one since his dog Lucky died a few years ago. But as he ran his fingers though the cat's soft fur the want of a pet flitted through his mind. He gave a mental shrug, maybe he'll talk to Laura about it.

"What'cha making?" he asked.

"Daifuku. They are for Cooper and Lily. You know, your children? They are for distracting Jaken for me yesterday."

Clint's nose wrinkled in distaste, "Yeah what's his problem lately? He was fine when we first got here, not it's like he's expecting you to collapse at any moment." Then as if he realized what he had just said his eyes widened and he gave her a panicked look, "You're not going to are you?"

Kagome laughed lightly, but she was glad he couldn't see her face as she was sure she was wearing a guilty look, "No, I'm not going to collapse. He's just getting paranoid in his old age." She knew exactly why Jaken was shadowing her. he was getting anxious about her keeping the barrier up. While it wasn't painful to keep it up, she did notice that her energy drained a lot faster. She was tired a lot of the time, but relaxing outside helped to hide that fact. This was a new experience for her. Using her powers had never drained her like this before. Only when she had been fighting for a really long time or using a few powers that used up a lot on energy at once. She had promised Jaken that once they left and she dropped the barrier she wouldn't use her powers again until she had her baby. Well, unless it was an emergency which he was sure he understood.

He let out a sigh of relief, "Oh thank god, that is the last thing we need right now." Kagome hummed in agreement as she continued working.

When Laura finally came down to the kitchen she was met with a comical scene. Kagome was holding a tray filled with freshly made treats above her head as her husband tried vainly to reach the tray to take one. One of Kagome's hands held the tray while the other was pressed against Clint's chest, trying to keep him away. Kirara was on Clint's head as she leaned over and playfully batted at his nose. Jaken was pulling on one of Clint's legs with all his might, trying to het him away from Kagome.

Laura couldn't help it as a giggle left her, drawing the attention of everyone else, "I was unaware that I had four children."

Clint immediately stopped going for the treats, a grin on his face, "Didn't I tell you that when you married me, that it would be like taking care of a child forever."

Laura fondly shook her head before yelling up the stairs, "Children breakfast is ready." She turned back to Kagome, "Those smell really good Gome."

"Thanks Laura." Kagome said with a smile.

As the kids came down and smelled the breakfast smiles appeared on their faces. Cooper hopped onto his chair and immediately started digging in. Lila ran and gave Kagome a hug before following after her brother. Kagome laughed before sitting down herself, the rest following her.

Hours later Kagome watched as Clint approached, a serious look on his face. A worried Jaken was tailing him. Kagome put down the book she was reading and shared a look with Laura. All of the girls had gone outside to relax after breakfast while the boys worked on something in the house. Natasha had gotten called back into the house a few minutes ago, so with Clint coming out now meant bad news.

"What's wrong?" Kagome called out.

"Sorry Gome, but we've got to go. We just got a call from Steve. New York is being attacked and we're pretty sure it's your specialty. We got cut off and we can't get in contact with anyone, so we have to head back now. Nat's getting your things so quickly say your goodbyes. Sorry we got to cut things short here." Clint explained.

Kagome shook her head as she stood up, her blood starting to race at the thought of battle, "Don't apologize. If a demon is attacking then you'll need my help. Demons have many powers that you may not know how to deal with. While I won't be able to actively help with my condition, but I'll be able to advice you at least."

Jaken gave a nod of agreement, she would not be put on the frontlines. But even he had to admit the girl had a good tactical mind. He wouldn't have though so, first meeting her, but the more battles she participated in the better she gave battle advice to her pack. At the end she was the second-best strategist in their group. The only one better was Sesshomaru who was teaching his wife all he knew.

Clint looked uneasy, but nodded, "I'll help Nat grab the rest of the stuff and we'll meet you at the quinjet." He felt really bad dragging Kagome into the battle field, but she was the only one he knew that would know how to beat a demon. Which what had to be what was attacking New York. All he had gotten from Steve before they were cut off was that a child with powers and stronger than any child his age should be. While the kid could be a mutant, with circumstances as they were the odds were the kid was a demon.

Kagome turned and quickly pulled Laura and Lila into a group hug, "Thank you both so much for this week. You've made me feel like myself again and I really appreciate it."

"You're gunna come back and visit. Right Aunt Gome?" Lila asked with tears in her eyes.

"Of course, I will, don't you doubt that. It will have to be after my baby is born though so it'll be a while. But I will come back I promise." Kagome assured her.

Laura pulled her into a tight hug, "Be safe out there. Don't do anything reckless." She pulled back and gave a small smirk, "In other words don't do anything Clint would do." She said with a laugh.

Cooper came running out of the house and practically barreled into Kagome, "I don't want you to go." He cried out and held her tighter.

Kagome hugged him back and let out a light laugh, "I'll be back don't you worry. Plus, we can send letters if you want. Your dad will work as an in-between."

"Oh, I'll color you lots of pictures!" Lila said excitedly.

"Me too!" Cooper was quick to agree with his sister.

Kagome smiled softly, "I'd love that, both of you. Now I have to get going. We'll talk later okay. Whenever you talk to you dad just see if I'm around and I'll be happy to talk with you too."

Without another word, because she would be talking there forever if she continued, she started making her way to the quinjet. Jaken was following right behind her, both had serious expressions on their faces. They were going into battle once more. Kagome's blood raced at the thought of it as a dark gleam crossed her eyes. Maybe it was Naraku.


	13. Hakudoshi

Kagome was practically on the edge of her seat as they neared New York. Clint was pushing the quinjet as fast as it could go so, they were going to get there in half the time it took them to get to his farm. A demon was attacking New York and it was probably her fault. Would it be someone she knew, or someone new? Or, her mind thought darkly, was it Naraku? Had the nasty spider finally shown his hand? It had been nearly three months since he had gone into hiding with her brother, the coward. They were only a few miles out now and Clint was gradually slowing them down. Her grip on her bow tightened, a small quiver with arrows borrowed from Clint was strapped to her back. While she had no inclination to be part of the battle, things rarely went to plan. With her powers acting up she wouldn't be able to make spirit arrows so Clint had given her a dozen of his own. They were just his normal arrows, not his trick ones.

"Are you feeling alright Miko?" Jaken whispered to her so the humans wouldn't hear. He had seen her grip tighten on the bow, he was worried about her mental state. She had just started getting better and now she was being thrusted right back into a stressful environment. He really hoped this didn't set her back even after all this.

Kagome nodded, "Just a bit anxious." She answered just as quietly. If Clint thought she was having reservations he would push for her to stay on the jet and just give them information from there. she wasn't a person who could do that though, she would feel guilty just sitting safe on the sidelines. She was not letting anyone die today.

As soon as they entered New York and the tower came into view in the distance Kagome realized why Clint's and Steve's call got cut off. The demon had thrown up a barrier around the tower and a few blocks surrounding it. She went stiff in her seat as the yoki ran around her. she was very familiar with the feel of this yoki. It was Naraku's, or one of his incarnations. They all feel very similar, being born from Naraku and all.

"Clint land over there." Kagome said pointing to a clear area about a block from the edge of the barrier. She would have to open and entrance to the demonic barrier for them. She still had her own barrier up from the farm. Releasing her barrier should form enough of a blast to destroy a small opening in the barrier to let them through. She could feel her Ki stirring inside her reacting to her emotions, but fizzling before reaching the surface. Jaken was right, she wouldn't be able to use her Ki after this. Not without forcing it to the surface however, which would not be safe for herself or her baby.

They landed and headed towards the jet's exit. Clint stopped her however before she got there, "Are you sure you want to go out there with us Gome? It's not too late to stay on the jet. We can wear hidden cameras that will transmit video straight to the quinjet. You wouldn't have to go straight towards the danger and just tell us what to do and watch out for from the safety of here." It is voice was practically pleading. He did not want his pregnant and semi-unstable sister walking right in the middle of a battlefield.

"Clint, I'll be fine. I'll stay away from the danger as best as I can. I can't just sit on the sidelines when this is probably my fault anyway. This is part of my war, I won't just pass off the responsibility to you. That is not fair to you guys." She gave a small smirk as she headed off the jet, "Plus, how do you plan on getting past the barrier without me?"

"There is a barrier?" Natasha asked, sticking close to Kagome. She knew better than trying to keep Kagome away from the fight. The girl could be very stubborn when she set her mind on something. If she couldn't make the girl stay somewhere safe, she would keep her safe herself.

"You can't see it?" When both Clint and Natasha shook their heads, she turned to Jaken, "What about you? Can you see it?"

"Barely. Whoever put the barrier up is trying to keep it hidden, but mostly from humans so demons will be able to see it barely. You are able to see it either because of your Ki or the fact you are mated to a demon." Jaken explained.

Kagome nodded her head in understanding. The person attacking wasn't' Naraku himself then. The reason that they would keep the barrier hidden was they didn't want anyone attacking it. So, it either wasn't a very strong barrier, or they aren't used to making a barrier quite this big and they are unsure of its stability. It's hard to attack what you can't see. Naraku was an expert on barriers, he had once put one around an entire mountain for a few months. Naraku himself had no reason to hide his barriers. In fact, he would probably keep it clearly visible just so his prey would keep attacking it, wearing themselves out.

"Right then; Jaken, Kirara what do you smell?" Kagome asked as they came to the barrier. While Jaken didn't have to best sense of smell, being slightly better than a human's, they were close enough to the barrier that he should be able to smell what she had sensed from the jet.

Kirara smelled the air before letting out a hiss, her hair standing on end. She was still in her kitten form and would stay like that unless it was necessary for her to transform. They had decided it was best to hide the fiery sabretooth from the general public.

Jaken smelled deeply before his eyes narrowed in anger, "I will never forget that stench. It's the spider."

Both Clint and Natasha tensed up as Kagome shook her hand, "Not Naraku himself, but definitely on of his incarnations." She shot down that idea immediately. If the two spies thought it was Naraku himself they would definitely demand she go back to the jet which could be completely hidden.

"Who of his incarnations could make barriers then?" Natasha asked.

They were right at the edge of the barrier, but Kagome wasn't going to brake it quite yet. They needed to talk a bit before they dived into the battle. Plus, as soon as she let her barrier down it was likely the demon would be able to find her within a few minutes, "The first person to come to mind is Hakudoshi, but that can't be possible. Jaken said he was sealed away with Sesshomaru. The infant was able to as well, but he is dead. I don't think any of his other incarnations were able to. It seemed that only the incarnations he made after his stay on Mount Hakurei were able to form a barrier. But for all I know he's made a new incarnation since coming to this time."

"Right we'll make sure we're careful." Clint said as he readied his weapon. Whoever it was attacking his team he would not let them hurt his little sister.

Kagome nodded silently, understanding the silent command, and put her hands on the edge of the barrier. She flinched slightly as the barrier shocked her a bit in its self-defense. Without hesitation she released her own barrier and sent that raw energy straight out of her hands. Within seconds the barrier around her shattered, becoming temporarily visible to the humans of the group. The hole was barely big enough for a car to fit through, though it was already starting to heal itself.

"Go through now." She shouted and darted through, the others following through.

The moment they walked into the barrier the ear pieces they put in connected to the others and voices filled their ears.

"Goddammit Cap he disappeared again. Where did the brat go? Who has a visual?" Tony's voice came through.

"I don't see him, maybe he's battling the Hulk again?" Steve said, they could hear the annoyed tone to his voice.

"Well I'm getting really tired of playing tag." Tony spat out.

"Team we're here. What's the status on everything?" Clint interrupted whatever Steve was going to answer.

"Legolas? What the hell? I thought you were on vacation with the kid until later tonight. What are you doing here?"

"Steve contacted us earlier but got cut off. We came as quickly as we could, sorry for the wait." Clint answered.

"We? Who's we? Where is Kagome?" Tony demanded.

"I'm right here, now tell us what's going on. I can't give you guys information if you don't tell me who your fighting and what he can do." Kagome said seriously, she was in battle mode and was taking no nonsense from anyone. She needed information to help her friends.

"I got their locations, they are sticking close to the tower. Let's head that way." Natasha said as she started walking towards the tower. She watched everything around her, watching everything around. She would be ready if an enemy popped up somewhere.

"You brought Kagome here? What were you thinking? How stupid can you get Barton?" Tony yelled angrily.

"Shut up Tony, I insisted. I am a big girl who can make her own decisions. Now if you aren't going to be helpful at the moment, I'll ask you kindly not to comment until this is over. Now, Steve, do you have a description of the attacker?"

Steve's voice was a bit unsure, but he gave his description nonetheless. He understood that tone in her voice very well, "Right, he's a kid somewhere between eight and eleven. He didn't give his name, but he keeps demanding a Miko which I am assuming is you. He has light purple hair that goes to his mid-back. He wields a weapon that is like a sword attached to a spear staff. Despite his age he wields the weapon like a pro. He's able to fly and he teleports around like crazy. He can also make barriers around him so getting a hit in is frustrating, even if it is a bit uncomfortable fighting a kid. Tony got in a hit with his repulser once and it left a burn, but now it's gone so I'm guessing he had fast healing as well.

"He, ah, also has this horse that can fly. It's pure white with an orange mane. Its hooves catch fire when he flies, and it can also spit fire much like a flamethrower. Which is beyond weird I'm going to add."

Kagome was speechless for a moment. It wasn't possible, was it? "No way. Hakudoshi?"

"That is not possible Miko, he was sealed away with Mi Lord." Jaken argued.

"Who else would Entei help? Entei is loyal to whoever he chooses as a master until that master is defeated or dies a natural death. Unless you know of another white, flying, fire breathing horse?" she asked sarcastically with a raised eyebrow.

Jaken sputtered uselessly for a bit but didn't give a direct answer.

"Thought so."

"Ah shit, found him." Tony groaned out.

"Where is he?" Steve asked.

"Well considering he just threw me into a building I would say my current location would be a good guess. Damn that hurt."

Kagome turned to Natasha, "Get me there." if she could get his attention maybe he would stop attacking. Last she heard he was loyal to Sesshomaru. Perhaps he was simply looking for her to be on her side. Her heart hurt a bit as they ran to Tony's location. If Hakudoshi somehow got out of Inukimi's barrier, then why couldn't Sesshomaru?

Hakudoshi smirked as he threw the metal man into a building. He had been at this for hours, but his goal wasn't to kill them. Not yet at least. If that was his goal then he would have finished this a lot sooner. He just needed to find the Miko. He could kill these annoying humans after that. His goal was to find and protect his master's wife. Just a few minutes ago he had heard her voice coming from within the metal man as he communicated with them. It was obvious now that they did indeed have her, now he just had to find out where.

"Give her to me you filthy human." Hakudoshi demanded, the language foreign on his tongue. He had learned the language out of necessity, it was the only way to communicate with the humans on this continent. He had read the memories of every Japanese looking person he saw until he found one that was fluent in English. They had disgusted him, but the skill was necessary in rescuing the Miko.

"Not like I'd tell you kid. Who the hell are you anyway?" Tony groaned out as he climbed out of the hole the kid had thrown him through.

Hakudoshi smirked, "Your worst nightmare if you don't give me the Miko." He stated plainly.

"Ha! You? Yeah right kid, you're not even out of elementary school yet." Tony quipped before starting to fight the child once again. At first, he had been hesitant, feeling horrible, fighting a child. But that had changed after the first half hour and after the kid threw him through him through a few walls.

They were at it for a few minutes until they heard someone scream "Stop!" and an arrow flashed dangerously close to Hakudoshi's face. His eyes widened in surprise a flew back quickly before looking down. To his pleasure he saw his prize being guarded by two humans, his master's imp, and the two-tailed cat. How fortunate for him.

He teleported down and swatted the two humans away with his naginata. He then placed himself in front of her, protectively. It was very strange seeing her enlarged stomach. He had learned of her being with child once he had joined Lord Sesshomaru. He had been honestly very impressed that the woman had hidden it for so long. There was no way she would be able to hid it now, she was very visibly pregnant. He wasn't only tasked with protecting her, but the unborn child as well. He would not fail in the mission his master gave him.

He was about to attack the humans further when he felt someone grab his weapon, stopping his attack. He spun around only to see the Miko holding him back.

Hakudoshi, stop. If you are truly on my side then stand down. They are not my enemy. They are friends so stop your attack." Kagome ordered.

Hakudoshi hesitated, a frown overtaking his face. He mainly listened to his new master now, but when he wasn't' around his master's wife would be the next in command. However, "How do I know you are now simply under their control?" it wouldn't be impossible, the Miko had been mind-controlled in the past. On multiple occasions actually. Plus, with how far along in the pregnancy she was, her control to protect her mind would dwindle. Normally even if she was put under someone's control, she could break out of it rather easily. As she did with his brother in the past.

Kagome let go of the naginata and simply held out her hand. She knew very well that Hakudoshi could read minds. To learn what he wanted all he had to do was read her mind, he just had to make skin contact.

Hakudoshi made a small face of displeasure before grabbing her hand. Her memories from the past two months flashed into his head. She spoke the truth; these people had saved her from that hospital. He nodded his head as he let go of her hand. He strapped his weapon to his back most of his hostility practically gone instantly.

"I shall not attack them any longer my lady. I was under the impression they had stolen you." Hakudoshi apologized with a slight bow.

Kagome looked a bit uncomfortable. The situation was awkward for her. the last time she had seen Hakudoshi he was her enemy, trying to kill her. now he was bowing in submission. She knew it was just a byproduct of him vowing his allegiance to Sesshomaru, but still, "It's fine Hakudoshi, as long as you apologize to them and don't do it again." Most of, if not all, of her friends had attacked her at one point or another before they became friends. Why not Hakudoshi as well?

Hakudoshi's face twisted in distaste as Tony finally landed by them. Nat and Clint had been watching silently, ready to jump in as any moment if anything went wrong. A few seconds later Steve ran over to them. Kagome put her hand on Hakudoshi's shoulder for one of two reasons; one to show her allegiance with the young demon, and two to hold the boy back from attacking anymore.

"I apologize for Hakudoshi, he thought I needed rescuing." She glared down at Hakudoshi and squeezed his shoulder in warning, "He is sorry, right?"

Hakudoshi crossed his arms and let out a 'tsk' noise before grinding out, "I did not mean my lady's allies harm."

Kagome rolled her eyes and sighed, "That is the best you are going to get out of him I'm afraid. Honestly I'm surprised you got that much." She really was shocked how well he was behaving. He hadn't even moved to shrug her hand off of his shoulder. Out of all of Naraku's incarnations Hakudoshi was most like his creator. Their minds thought very similarly, which was worrying at times. The only consolation was Hakudoshi had had a long record of trying to betray Naraku.

"Ah, it's fine, I guess. No permanent harm done." Steve said rubbing the back of his neck. He then turned to Tony, "We should probably go calm down the Hulk. Also, where did Thor get to?"

Kagome froze up slightly, her hold on Hakudoshi's shoulder unconsciously growing tighter, "Thor?" she did not have the greatest experiences with gods and/or goddesses. Her own experience with a greater goddess had left her with an arrow in her back, which would have been lethal if not for the celestial cloak. She still had the scar from that experience, one of the few that didn't heal over. She had also had several different lesser gods try and get her to bond to them as their servant. It had gotten rather annoying after a while, for their whole group. Plus, the Kami's usually got violent after she told them no. she had heard many good things about Thor during the month living with the Avengers, so she really didn't want to expect the worst of him. However, if he did try to get her to become his servant and she said no… she did not have the energy nor was she in the proper condition to fight a kami's wrath.

"Yeah, he flew over when he heard about the attack, he was actually already on his way back with his girlfriend. He got here right before the little demon put up the barrier. He had been flying around, but I haven't seen him for a while." Tony explained glaring at the boy his daughter was holding onto.

Hakudoshi smirked, "That is because I knocked the troublesome god out. He was an annoyance I wanted out of the picture so I cornered him earlier. He didn't stand a chance." He bragged. He did leave out that he had simply teleported behind the god and planned a pincer attack with Entei to hit the god fast and hard.

"For which I will repay you for demon." Thor said as he landed.

Hakudoshi immediately pulled his naginata intent of protecting the Miko from the angry god. He could sense his lady's discomfort and slight fear from the god.

Thor's gaze drifted to the girl the demon was protecting and his eyes widened. His look darkened as he gripped Mjolnir tighter, "step away from the holy one demon."

Kagome herself pulled her bow on the god, her own gaze hardening, "You stand down Kami. Hakudoshi here is my guard and is simply doing his sworn duty. I apologize for him attacking you, but as of now you need to put down you weapon or I will engage."

"If you attempt to hurt my charge, I will not hesitate to roast you alive Kami." Jaken threatened, holding his staff out. Kirara hissed at him from her perch on Kagome's shoulder. They had both been around when gods would try and force her to become their servant. She was the most powerful Miko since Midoriko and was sought after because of it.

"And I will not hold back to protect my lady." Hakudoshi growled lowly.

Thor looked conflicted for a moment as he looked at his friends. They all seemed ready to defend the holy woman.

Steve stepped forward, "Why don't we all stand down here. Let's all go back to the tower and just talk this out. Tony can you go get Bruce? The rest of us will head back to the tower and we'll have a nice calm meeting."

Tony nodded as he flew off, but not before giving Kagome worried look. He did not like the look on Kagome's face just then.

Clint gave Kagome a reassuring side-hug before starting to walk in the opposite direction, "I'll get the quinjet back to the tower. Nat watch out for Gome please."

Natasha nodded as moved right next to her sister. Everyone else put their weapons away as they made their way back to the tower, which was only a block away at this point. These next few hours would be a bit tense, but hopefully everything would be resolved in a quick enough manner.


	14. The Wolf Pack

Tony glanced nervously between the unspoken divide in the room. The tension was so thick he could practically cut it. Though for once he was being smart and keeping his mouth shut. Kagome was sitting on an armchair, running around the city had really wiped her out and her back was killing her. That was the only reason why she was currently sitting and not standing like she had wanted to. The kid they had been fighting was standing in front, yet to the side of her. Like a sentinel or guard. The serious look on his face had Tony worried. This kid was seriously tough, so why did he see Thor as an enemy? Especially an enemy against Kagome. The kid looked like he was ready to attack at any moment, his hand ready on his weapon. The toad wasn't any better. He was gripping his staff very tightly, most likely ready to make it go flame thrower at a second's notice. Even the cat's hair was slightly standing on end.

Tony turned his gaze to Kagome herself. She was sitting on the edge of her seat, ready to bolt if the need arose. Why? Why were they so nervous of Thor? Sure, Thor was amazing in a fight but outside of one, among friends, he was a regular teddy bear. While the kid had seen Thor in action neither Kagome nor the toad had seen Thor during the fight, so why had they been immediately defensive against the demi-god?

"Why do you side with your sworn enemy Lady Priestess?" Thor asked seriously, breaking the silence and Tony's ponderings.

"They are not my enemy, but my friends and family." Kagome growled out. God's and their instant judgements.

"Why would you ally yourself with such foul creatures?" Thor asked genuinely confused. Stories growing up had told of the horrors the demons had committed throughout the centuries. The demons of Midgard had almost equal live spans of Asgardians. He had been told they were ruthless creatures who could hold a grudge for their entire lives. They were feared almost as much as the frost giants were. Thor was suddenly surprised by the dark look on the holy lady's face.

"The only foul creature in this room is your kind, who think they can do whatever they wish, Kami." Kagome spat out; her eyes dark.

"Hey alrighty, let's all take a breath and calm down." Bruce interjected. If things kept going this way, a fight was bound to start. He turned to Steve, "Why don't you make this easier and play mediator?"

Steve nodded his agreement. He decided to start with Thor as he knew him best, "Thor, what do you have against Hakudoshi?" he really hoped that he remembered the demon's name correctly.

"Demons are evil by nature, their souls darkened by the cruel acts. There has never been a demon soul welcomed into the halls of Valhalla. I grew up with stories about the horrors the demons had rained upon Midgard. We had believed they had gone extinct over two centuries ago. Our intel was obviously wrong." Thor explained.

"Saying all demons are evil is the same as saying all humans are evil. People are always so quick to judge the whole on the actions of the bad few. Demons went into hiding to avoid extinction." Kagome was quick to defend her friends. She didn't want to judge Thor just like he was judging others, but her temper was starting to act up.

"A good point Kagome. Now, what do you have against the Asgardians?" Steve asked, thinking about her previous statement.

"Asgardians?" Kagome asked confused for a moment before realizing that was Thor's species, "No I don't have anything against Asgardians specifically. Not really, you misunderstand. Who I have ill feelings toward are gods or goddesses. Kami's. I have been attacked by too many seeking my power and status. They want me to tie myself to them. Think of it as forced servitude. Kami's do not usually take well to being told no. At least the Kami's I've come in contact with." She sent Thor and unreadable look, "I am hoping time has changed some things."

"Kami's have tried to force the Miko into servitude many times in the past. Towards the end of our travels together it was almost a monthly thing. The Kami's did not take kindly to the Miko saying no and would soon turn violent. It became tedious and annoying to deal with. The Kami's have stopped regularly coming to this world; so, I can't say much of their behavior now a'days, but in the past their behavior was deplorable to Mi Lord's wife." Jaken explained.

Hakudoshi gave a sharp nod, "While I did not travel with them, we often heard word of fights between lower Kami's and a particular Miko. I believe it became a competition almost to them. Who could make the Miko submit first? Naraku could never find any plan to use those sporadic fights as there were no way predict when one would come to claim it's prize, so he ignored them for the most part."

Thor looked appalled, "Holy one, times have changed. As ones born with holy powers became less through the years, they became more treasured. While it is an honor to get a priestess to swear their loyalty to you, it is a crime to force them. Your kind is thought to have been extinct upon Midgard. There has not been a Midgardian born with holy powers in the past 175 years, not recorded anyway. My mother has taught my brother and myself that if we were so lucky to meet a priestess, we were to show them the greatest respect. I am sorry about your experiences with those of higher power. I give you my word Lady Priestess that I will do no such thing and if anyone dares to try, I will cut them down myself."

Kagome took a deep breath to reign in her anger as she looked at the god. If both Natasha and Clint trusted this man enough to watch their backs in a fight, then she could give him a chance as well. She looked the Kami in his eyes, "Very well Kami, I will give you a chance. If you do anything however, I will not show mercy." Her eyes glinted, showing her seriousness, "I have killed Kami's before and I will not hesitate to do so again."

Jaken gasped in surprise, "Miko are you sure?" what if this was his plan, lure her into a false sense of security. Kagome's nod was his only answer.

Hakudoshi chuckled darkly, "I've never gotten the chance to kill a god before. Perhaps you'll actually form a challenge. Oh, I do hope you step out of line."

Kagome let out a sigh, "Hakudoshi." Anything further she was about say was cut off as the elevator dinged, announcing the arrival of someone. She turned to Tony, "Were you expecting someone?"

"Perhaps it is my Jane and Lady Darcy." Thor put in, then he frowned, "Though they shouldn't have been able to get here so quickly, they were a while away when I left them."

"Jarvis?" Tony barked out confused.

"My protocols have been overrun; I apologize for not realizing sooner Sir." Jarvis answered.

"Sorry about that, don't worry about your AI, that's on me." A woman's voice called out.

"We are members of the DPA, America division, and we are here for the one that caused all that trouble earlier." A male voice sounded off, right after.

Two people walked into the room with three others flanking behind them. Both of the voices seemed very familiar to Kagome, but looking at them she knew she had never met them before.

"What the hell is DPA? I've never heard of them." Clint asked. As a high-ranking member of Shield, he knew about practically every other division around the world. Normally he wouldn't really care if some random people took the bad guy away, but Kagome had claimed the kid under her protection. So, well, he cared now.

"You wouldn't, it's above your security clearance. We are in charge of a specific group of individuals, that the one you are harboring falls under. He broke article three of the Feudal Accords. Now please hand him over." The male demanded.

Kagome stood up and placed herself in front of Hakudoshi, "I apologize for this one's actions. He was simply trying to find me. He didn't have any knowledge of the accords as he's been sealed away for some time. I take full responsibility for his actions, please forgive him. He will not act out again, I swear." Kagome pleaded.

The moment everyone's gaze caught sight of her, their eyes grew wide and a silence fell over the room.

Then the man in front whispered out, "Kagome?"

Kagome looked at them, trying to figure out how she knew them. Like she had thought before, their voices were familiar but she just couldn't place it, "I'm sorry, do I know you?"

"Sister?" one of the three behind the two in front said in a flabbergasted tone.

There was only two people that called her sister, "The wolf pack?" she called out in a hopeful tone. What were the odds, they had been looking for Koga and his pack since they arrived in New York, and they just happen to come to them?

The woman smacked the man, "The glamour you idiot."

The man's eyes widened, "Ah, right." They all fiddled with the bracelets they were wearing and suddenly five completely different people were standing in front of them.

Kagome's eyes grew wide, she didn't actually think she would see them again. Sure, she knew they were alive, but they had been looking for them for so long with no success. She had been losing hope of actually being able find her friends.

"K-Koga? Ayame?" Kagome whispered out, tears filling her eyes.

Koga's entire face lit up, "My woman!" he shouted out in pure joy and in the next second he was in front of Kagome and pulling her into a tight hug, though he was sure to be careful of her stomach.

There was about to be a room full of angered people when a noise cut through. Kagome let out a peel of laughter as she hugged the wolf demon back. The Avengers all stilled, they had never heard such a pure laugh out of the depressed girl. Sure, she had let out a few laughs the few months she had been with them, but they had never been that happy full bellied laugh that she was currently giving.

The two other male wolves quickly joined the hug, "Sister!" they yelled out again and wrapped their arms around their sister that they haven't seen in around 500 years.

Koga pulled back and looked her over at arm's length, his two original pack members were refusing to let go and each one was hanging over each of her shoulders, huge grins splitting their faces. He looked her over, he had honestly thought that she was dead. When the whole Inu pack had been wiped out and Sesshomaru had come back with only his original pack, fury in his eyes, he was sure that Kagome had died as well. Sesshomaru hadn't said anything one way or another, so he had been left with his assumptions. When Sesshomaru lost the battle with his inner beast his assumptions had just seemed more likely. But here she was, safe and sound, and a few more months pregnant than he had last seen her.

"Oh, gods Kagome I'm so sorry. Are you alright, are you hanging in there alright? What happened?" Koga questioned desperately.

"Let's all sit down, it's a long story." Kagome said and took her previous seat. Ginta and Hakkaku sat down on the floor in front of her, like children waiting for story time. The Avengers shifted around, making room for the new comers. Koga and Ayame sat next to Tony and Pepper on a long couch. The last person who hadn't said anything yet moved behind the two on the couch and Kagome's eyes grew wide in disbelief. "Bankotsu? But how?"

The formally twice dead leader of the band of seven grinned cheekily at her, "Same as you mini-skirt." He teased.

Kagome's face went red in embarrassment at his dig at her middle school uniform, "If you were reincarnated then how in the world do you remember everything?"

Bankotsu shrugged, "No idea. Both myself and Jakotsu were born to the same family. I'm three years older than him, but he's still the same as always. We both got our memories back when we turned ten. We figure it's because we were brought back to life with the Shikon and it somehow merged our memories into our souls. We're both shadow demons and when we got old enough, we decided to see if we were completely crazy or if it was true. We eventually found Koga, which was very amusing. Now we just follow the old wolf around with nothing better to do."

Kagome hummed in amazement as the processed her new information. Natasha took advantage of the silence, "We'll ask again now that we're all allies and know each other. What is the DPA?"

"Ah, right." Ayame said as she leaned forwards slightly, "The DPA is an organization we formed with the other lords over 400 years ago. It stands for Demon Protection Association. We don't normally have to do much these days except take in rouge demons who decide they want to make trouble for everyone else."

"What did you do to Jarvis." Tony growled at her. She had taken responsibility for bypassing his protocols.

"Nothing much really, I just made him ignore us." Ayame said with a shrug.

"But how?" Tony asked frustrated.

Ayame sent him a look, "Don't get me wrong, you're good. Exceptionally good actually. I'd say you are the best human with technology at the moment. However, I've been around since technology got invented. Kagome left one of her broken phones at our den one time and I became fascinated by it. I'm our resident tech genius."

Tony's eyes shined, "We so need to have a conversation." He said eagerly.

"No problem." Ayame smiled.

They all sat there talking with each other for a while. Kagome let them know what had happened since she got thrown through the well by her husband. That Naraku wasn't dead and was now in this era. How he had her brother and son. How she needed to find her husband and daughter and release them from their barrier prison. As she brought that up a frown appeared on Hakudoshi's face.

"Absolutely not." Hakudoshi said, shutting that idea down immediately.

Kagome's eyes narrowed dangerously, "What do you mean no?"


	15. The starting of a plan

The room fell quiet as Kagome glared angrily at the white-haired child. Tony sighed silently, honestly the tension had just bleed out of the room and now it was back full force.

"What do you mean no?" Kagome asked again calmly yet everyone could hear the edge in her voice.

Hakudoshi let out a sigh, "It is not safe to bring you where my lord is being kept. To bring you there would be putting both you and your child in danger. Lord Sesshomaru told me that your safety was to be my top priority when we found a way to get back to you. Taking you to him would go against my orders. We can go and retrieve my lord after the baby is born and you have full access to your powers once again."

"I don't care. We'll put together a good team and I'll stay safely in the back. We need to get him before the baby is born. The sooner the better!" Kagome argued. She knew that at this point her surviving the birth was less than ten percent at this point. It was honestly a miracle that she was still as sane as she was this long after parting from her mate. If she didn't get to Sesshomaru before the baby was born then she would die and Sesshomaru would never get released from his barrier and her baby would grow up an orphan. That was unacceptable. Not while she had other options available to her.

Hakudoshi stared calmly at the frantic Miko, she seemed determined to try and get to Sesshomaru. Not that he was surprised, he had learned a bit about mating the few years he was alive. However, she needed to see that it was too dangerous, "Where do you think Inukimi of all people would put her most precious thing in the world? Where would she keep him to keep him safe while he is unable to defend himself? Think for a moment."

Kagome fell silent for a moment, what was he trying to get at? If she knew where he was, she would have been going for him a long time ago. Then it suddenly dawned on her and her mouth gaped a bit as she deflated in her seat, "Oh, well that is pretty smart of her."

Hakudoshi nodded, "Indeed."

Thor frowned at the unnecessary secrecy; it didn't really help that he didn't know what was going on. However, this was like entering a conversation with Loki without knowing what his brother was after, "What do you speak of?"

Kagome sent the god a tired look, "Oh, right… sorry." She gave a small sigh, "Inukimi is more than just the leader of the west. She is also the guardian of hell, well the demon version of it I guess. The has control over the Meido stone which gives her reign over hell. Inukimi most likely put Sesshomaru's barrier in a safe corner in hell itself." As much as she didn't want to admit it, Hakudoshi was right. This was far too dangerous a mission to drag her baby into. At the same time, she didn't really have much of a choice. And, well, she had survived worse.

"Correct, and the only open entrance to hell is at the bottom of a cave system swarming with feral demons." Hakudoshi explained.

"Well shit. What do we do now?" Clint asked worriedly.

Kagome stood up, "Koga, Ayame, Hakudoshi could I speak to you three alone for a moment?"

Koga stood up immediately, pulling Ayame up with him, "Of course Gome, lead the way."

"Why can't you say what you want to in front of all of us?" Natasha asked with a raised eyebrow.

Kagome sent her a sad smile, "Demon business I'm afraid." Then she smirked slightly and winked, "It's classified."

Hakudoshi silently followed after the three, making sure that none of them were planning on following them.

Kagome led them to the kitchen area, it was well enough away from the sitting area that nobody would be able to overhear them. Once they all settled down Kagome addressed the first point, "Jarvis please enable the privacy setting. I don't want anybody being able to listen in or look back at the tapes."

"Of course, Mrs. Taisho." Jarvis answered and put the entire kitchen in blackout mode.

"Well that is convenient." Koga chuckled before turning serious. Kagome was usually pretty open with everything, not liking secrets as a general rule. So, if she was keeping whatever this was a secret to the rest of her human friends, then it had to be something big.

Ayame walked over to Kagome and rubbed a comforting hand on her back, "What's wrong Kagome?"

"We have to try and get Sesshomaru before the baby is born." She turned and looked Hakudoshi straight in his eyes, "At least once, we have to try." She took a calming breath and looked down; this was something that Jaken already knew as they had talked it over a few days ago. He was in agreement with her, "If Sesshomaru and myself are not reunited before the baby is born, my chances of surviving the birth are extremely low. Less than ten percent. If by some miracle I do survive I don't think I would last long afterword. I definitely wouldn't be in any shape to try and get him back after that. If I die, then Sesshomaru and Rin will stay locked in that barrier for all of eternity. Which will leave my baby all by itself." She looked up to see that the three of them finally completely understood her circumstances. They all had serious and determined looks on their faces.

"Fine we will try, once, and on a few conditions. One, you stay in the middle of the group so you are protected on all sides. Two, I will personally test the group that will be on the rescue mission. We will only proceed once I think the group will be strong enough to fight their way all the way down to the portal and keep you safe at the same time. Three, if we fail then we do not try again and throw our resources into trying to keep you alive through the birth." Hakudoshi relented. He knew the bonds between canine demons were strong, but he didn't think it was a co-dependent life expectancy. He would admit to underestimating the seriousness of the situation. He thought she would be fine to do a rescue mission after the birth, but that was now showing to not be true.

Kagome nodded in agreement, "Deal." She said happily. She didn't think he would give in that easily and had been preparing herself for a long argument.

"We will pull together an elite team and have them ready by the end the of month to help you. That should still give us enough time, you'd only be into your ninth month of your pregnancy by then so you'd still be able to walk well enough. The last two months are always the hardest." Ayame said with a knowing smile.

Kagome sent her a thankful smile before it dimmed, "There is one other thing I wanted to talk to you two about." She said to the two wolves. Both and Koga and Ayame gave her their full attention, she seemed more serious than normal, "If we fail, and don't manage to save Sesshomaru. If I die during or after the birth, I don't want my baby to be on its own. Don't get me wrong, Clint and Natasha would take my baby in without a second thought. They are human though, and my baby will be a full demon. My baby would only reach ten at the most before they died of old age. I don't want to do that to them. So, if the worst-case scenario comes around, I want to ask you two to take in my baby. I've talked it over with Jaken and he seemed to agree with me, thinking it was a good idea. Finding Inukimi and getting my baby to her seems impossible at this point. So, the next best option is to have my baby raised with the eastern lord and lady, so they'd know what to do when they got old enough to take over the west."

Ayame was dumbfounded and Koga was left short of breath. Kagome wanted them to do what?

"Please." Kagome asked desperately.

"Of course." Koga answered as soon as he was able to get control of his breath. It physically hurt him to see Kagome like this, but Kagome was his woman. She was part of his pack, and always would be. An honorary wolf sister, and wolves looked after their own.

"We would be honored; however, we hope that it doesn't come down to that. We've dealt with worse in the past. We'll get you your mate back, sweetie, keep looking forward." Ayame said while pulling Kagome into a hug. Kagome returned it desperately.

"Thank you." Kagome cried out.

Koga gave a grim smile and joined the hug, "Don't you worry, we'll get through this."

They stayed in the kitchen a few more minutes to dry tears and get control of emotions before making their way back out to the group. Ginta, Hakkaku, and Bankotsu could smell the remnants of tears coming from both Kagome and Ayame and made their way over to comfort their pack. Ginta hugged Kagome while Hakkaku made sure Ayame was alright. Bankotsu smirked and messed up Kagome's hair which she tried to smack his hand away for, Bankotsu was faster through.

"Secret meeting over with?" Tony asked with a small scowl. He really wanted to know what they had been talking about, but he knew that respecting Kagome's privacy was a big thing he had to watch out for. He was nosey and he knew it, she was one person he had to watch himself around if he wanted to stay on her good side if he ever planned on telling her about the whole being her father thing.

"Yeah, everything is good now. Hakudoshi?" Kagome prompted. At the moment his job was pretty much being her general, and he would be leading the rescue team. Might as well let him lead the conversation as well.

Hakudoshi sighed in irritation, "Fine. In one month's time we shall attempt a single rescue attempt for my Lord. Lord Koga and Lady Ayame have said they would lend some soldiers to help out. Only those who pass my expectations will accompany us, if not you shall stay behind. This is the only mission we will attempt so it is all or nothing, that is all." Hakudoshi finished. He really, really wanted to get away from these humans. He hoped that none of them passed his test, the less humans he had to be around the better.

"Well you heard the kid, so we better get going and pick which people to send with. With how peaceful it's been it'll be hard to pinpoint whose kept up with training and those that have been slacking off. We'll be back in a month, however if it's alright with Kagome we'd like to leave Bankotsu with you. Just some extra protection now that we know Naraku's around again." Koga said.

Bankotsu gave a feral grin, "Oh yeah, I'd love to get my hands on that manipulative bastard. Payback has been a long time coming. My baby has been wanting to taste his blood since I reunited with her."

"Baby?" Bruce asked in confusion and concern.

"Ignore him, he's just talking about his sword." Kagome said offhandedly.

"I don't see any sword on you." Steve said with a raised eyebrow.

"Well ya can't exactly walk around with swords now a days. People tend to get jumpy. She's just sealed away, wanna meet her?" Bankotsu grinned at him.

"Ugh…" Steve said uneasily.

Bankotsu didn't even give him a chance to answer as he snapped the bracelet he was wearing off of his wrist. With a flash of Yoki Bankotsu was holding the biggest sword any of the avengers had ever seen. Honestly, it didn't even look usable with how big it was.

"How do you even fight with that? It's bigger than you are." Tony asked flabbergasted.

Bankotsu shrugged as he leaned Banryu against his shoulder, "It's nothin' now. Now when I was human wielding this was quite the feat. You should see Jakotsu's sword, it detaches into more than fifty chain linked blades. He had complete control over its movements, it makes him really deadly even if he's an idiot."

Kagome let out a groan in agreement, "Weirdest person I've met, and that is saying a lot. His acrobatic skills matched up with his sword skills was impressive though. Inuyasha had a really hard time keeping up with Jakotsu."

"We'll make sure to bring him along, he is one of our best fighters." Ayame said, "We really should be going though. Is it alright if Bankotsu stays?"

"Um, its fine with me. But; this isn't my house, I'm just a guess. It's up to Tony really." Kagome said looking to Tony.

Tony pursed his lips a bit, what was with all these people suddenly staying here? First there was Jaken and the Neko. Then Hakudoshi appeared out of nowhere. Now there is this Bankotsu guy? He knew absolutely none of them, and trusted them even less. However, Kagome seemed to trust them and she seemed to have a good sense of character. So, "Yeah I guess it's alright with me."

Natasha frowned slightly and tapped Clint on the shoulder in irritation. Clint got her hint immediately as his thoughts were going along the same wavelength, "Wait a minute, they can totally stay. But they aren't staying on our floor. We don't mind Kagome, Kirara, and Buyo at all. We barely tolerate Jaken cuz he helps look after Kagome. Those two however you're going to have to find somewhere else for them to stay."

Tony frowned thoughtfully before saying, "Well it's not completely finished yet, but its livable. I know where I can put them." Kagome's floor, which he was naming the Taisho floor. The bedrooms were finished, as was the kitchen and bathrooms. The library/study was nearly finished but needed a bit of work yet. The nursery was barely even touched as he was sure Kagome would want to do that with her husband when they were finally reunited. It was a good thing he had given them an entire floor, as a whole family would be moving in. With some of the others he had split the floor in half. Kagome seemed to adopt people into her family left and right though. He would have to expand the number of expected bedrooms, but that wouldn't be a huge problem.

"Perfect, thank you. See you later Gome. Bankotsu has our numbers which he can give to you later. Call us or text us whenever you need." He pulled Kagome into a hug, "See you in a month, keep fighting."

Ayame pulled her into a hug as well, "We'll get through this sister, just you wait and see." She kissed her cheek before following after her husband.

Ginta and Hakkaku tightly hugged their sister before following their pack leaders out of the building.

"So… now what?" Bruce asked. So much had happened in the past few hours that it was hard to keep track of everything.

Whatever their answer was going to be was interrupted by Jarvis' announcement, "Sir, Miss Foster and Miss Lewis are on their way up."

"Ah, right, my future science buddies. Almost forgot they were on their way." Tony said.

Thor got a huge grin on his face as the elevator doors opened back up, "Jane!"

Jane scowled at him, "What the hell happened out there?"

Everyone looked at each other, right the fight with the kid. That seemed like a century ago at this point.

Darcy walked around her boss and looked at all the people in the room. When her eyes caught Kagome they lit up, "Ohh, baby bump!" she exclaimed before making her way over to Kagome, the only person who seemed to be around her own age. Might as well make friends, Darcy thought. Darcy grinned up at the expecting mother, "May I?" she asked eagerly.

Kagome laughed slightly, this girl was a breath of fresh air, "Go ahead. Everyone here seems to be afraid of them."

Darcy cackled as she looked behind her to the confused heroes and rolled her eyes. She held her hand on the baby bump and started cooing to the baby, "Well hello there little one." A huge smile broke across her face, "Oh, I think I felt them kick."

Kagome chuckled, "Yeah, they've been doing it for a while now. They've become much more active in the past week though."

The rest of them looked absolutely lost as the two started talking about the baby and ignoring everyone else around them. Bankotsu however looked amused, this was the Kagome that he remembers from the past. This girl might be just what the doctor ordered.


End file.
